The 25 Most Desirable Large Schools

We scored our desirability ranking based on yield (the percentage of accepted students who enroll), admissions, test scores, endowment, student-to-faculty ratio, retention, as well as climate and the quality of facilities, housing, and dining.  When we adjusted our overall school desirability ranking to include only schools with ten thousand or more students, the list is dominated by large state schools. But  there are some outliers: Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah,  with  30,000 students, comes in at No. 13. BYU is owned by the Mormon church and is the biggest religious university, and the third-largest private university, in the country. Ninety-eight percent of its students are Mormon, and it's the faith's primary institute of higher education, which explains why, on this list, its yield is second only to Harvard's
 
Contributing editor Peter Bernstein and researcher Courtney Kennedy drew on dozens of sources to compile these rankings including information from the National Center for Education Statistics, The Washington Monthl, and College Prowler.   A portion of the data they used is represented in the following school profiles, but for the full methodologies, see our FAQ here.   And if you're not a rankings fan, take a look at this piece by Colin Diver, the president of Reed College,  about why schools dislike rankings and how families can use them wisely as part of their college decision-making process.  
 
For more from College Prowler, visit their website.