Study: BYU is 2nd Most Popular University
By Alicia Moulton – 5 Mar 2009
Here’s one thing Harvard and BYU have in common – of all universities in the nation, both have the highest yields of students that choose to attend out of those who are accepted.
A recent study by U.S. News and World Report named Harvard as the most popular university in the nation according to this measure (79 percent yield), with BYU coming in close second with 77 percent.
The study was based on statistics from the fall 2007 entering class and was the second year U.S. News and World Report has conducted the study. Last year, BYU tied with Harvard at the highest national yield of 79 percent.
“This yield rank really reflects the students that apply here,” said Todd Hollingshead, spokesperson and BYU media relations manager. “They want to be here.”
Hollingshead said BYU is pleased with the high ranking. President Cecil O. Samuelson also referred to it while describing BYU’s achievements in the Inquiry Conference on Friday. Four out of five students accepted to BYU choose to enroll, he said, which is “matched only by one other university in the nation.”
According to information about the study on the U.S. News Web site, a high yield “means that the school is most likely very popular with a top reputation and that the students are highly motivated to go there.”
Stake Conference in Dubai
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — What may arguably be one of the most unique stakes in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints recently completed an equally unique series of stake conference meetings as Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve presided at Manama Bahrain Stake meetings conducted daily in different cities and countries over a 10-day period, including a Feb. 27 general stake conference session in Dubai and the calling of a new stake president.
It was the first official visit to the stake by an apostle in 26 years, the last time being in 1983 when Elder Boyd K. Packer first organized the stake.
Elder Holland and his wife, Patricia, and Elder Gerald Causse of the Seventy and his wife, Valerie, spent 10 days traversing the Manama Bahrain Stake, which covers several of the Arabian Gulf states and includes 16 units from the region such as those in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Bahrain.
Combining the 636 who attended the stake conference’s final general session in Dubai with the other sessions conducted earlier in the various cities, the total attendance was 1,500 for a Mormon stake of 1,950 members.
In speaking at the Dubai general session, “You are making history,” said Elder Holland, who oversees the Middle East Area for the LDS Church. “We may not see until later what that will mean. But the Spirit of the Lord is blessing you. This conference is evidence to you that God knows and loves you.”
At every stop in their itinerary, Elders Holland and Causse conducted interviews of priesthood leaders typical to when a new stake president is called and then conducted meetings with the local members, with each meeting including the sustaining of general authorities. At the final general session in Dubai, the new stake presidency — led by President Waldo D. Galan, a Dubai resident and a Ford Motor Co. executive — was announced and sustained. The proceedings were transmitted by broadband to members in those cities Elders Holland and Causse had visited in the previous days.