i've read this somewhere, that sulfuric acid in this reaction doesnt really act as a catalyst.
H2SO4 is a strong dehydrating agent, since esterification is an equilibrium reaction [as most things are] with water on the RHS, lowering [H2O] will result in the equilibrium moving to the right.
but i'm not sure about activation energy.
oh, and, how do you propose to calculate the yield? techniques on separating unknown amount of sulfuric acid from the ester?
on that note, if you are going to do it by "smelling", also keep in mind that sulfuric acid has a strong smell on its own. probably not a good idea to say that the "ample" solution has lower yield because it didnt smell as strong, because that could be a result of these two mixing.
as well as, stoichiometric amounts of alkanol and carboxylic acid must also be added, and must be allowed to react fully to produce the smell (and they too! have their own odours)
its very tricky unless you are going to do fractional distillation for your esters =)