It’s no secret that Ivy League schools have hit record low acceptance rates. At this point, hearing about the 3% admit rate at Harvard and 5% admit rate at Brown can feel like old news. Many families, however, are shocked to find out how selective the rest of the top 50-100 colleges have become. Schools like Northeastern and Tufts—which, just 10 years ago, admitted 32% and 21% of students—recently posted acceptance rates of 6.7% and 9%, putting them on par with Cornell and Georgetown. They aren’t alone, either. Take a look at the current acceptance rates at several schools that have historically been more generous with admissions offers than their Ivy+ counterparts.
ACCEPTANCE RATES FOR THE CLASS OF 2026
- Barnard College: 8%
- Boston College: 16.5%
- Boston University: 14.2%
- Bowdoin College: 8.9%
- Colby College: 7.5%
- Emory University: 15.8%
- Middlebury College: 11.5%
- Northeastern University: 6.7%
- New York University: 12.2%
- Tufts University: 9%
- Tulane University: 10%
- University of Virginia: 18.7%
- Vanderbilt University: 6.1%
- Washington University in St. Louis: 10%
- Villanova University: 23%
For students hoping to use these schools as “safeties,” their low admit rates can come as an unpleasant surprise. You might feel comfortable reaching for Harvard if Middlebury is more in range. But what if Middlebury itself is a reach?
If seeing these acceptance rates strikes fear into your heart, don’t panic! Instead, follow the steps we have laid out below to ensure you have a strong application strategy.
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BROADEN YOUR SEARCH
You might start your admissions journey focusing on the very top schools, but you shouldn’t stop there. Instead, take time to explore broadly, looking at big schools and small ones, urban universities and rural colleges. While looking, make sure to focus not just on the prestige of a school, but also on the opportunities it offers. Does it have majors that interest you? A community you are excited to join? Internship or co-op programs that would allow you to explore possible careers? Checking out a variety of schools will ensure that you have a range of colleges to apply to, all with different levels of selectivity.
CONSIDER YOUR ADMISSIONS ODDS
As we’ve noted before, many schools offer public data on the students they admit. From newspaper articles to class profiles to admissions blogs, there are lots of ways to learn about the types of applicants your target colleges prefer. Your high school may also offer programs like Naviance or Maia Learning that allow you to see how past students from your school have fared in the admissions process at particular colleges.
Be sure to take a look at this data when putting together your own application strategy! Does your GPA align with that of past students from your school who have been admitted to a certain college? Do your test scores fall at the high end of the school’s middle 50% range? Make sure you develop a well-rounded application plan that includes schools where recent data shows you will truly be a compelling applicant.
DEMONSTRATE INTEREST
No one aspires to be a fallback option. All schools—even those with more generous acceptance rates—aim to admit students who are excited about their offerings and may choose to attend.
How can you telegraph to a school that you are seriously considering it? Demonstrate interest! That is, engage with the college through campus or online visits, info sessions, webinars, social media, etc. to learn more about it and show that you are genuinely interested in attending it. Many schools will consider your engagement when making admissions decisions, so making your interest known can boost your odds of being accepted.
Exploring schools thoroughly can also help you make a compelling case for being admitted to a particular university, both in your supplemental essays and during your college interviews. The University of Michigan, for example, asks students to write an essay describing the “unique qualities that attract you to the specific undergraduate College or School … to which you are applying.” It’s hard to write that essay if you haven’t spent much time looking into the school!
By demonstrating interest in all of the schools on your list—including both your reach schools and your more realistic options—you’ll improve your odds of acceptance across the board. Learning more about a range of schools may also show you that your safeties aren’t safeties after all; they are dream schools in and of themselves.
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EMBRACE ROLLING AND EARLY ADMISSIONS
We’ve spoken before about the benefits of Early Decision, a binding application round that significantly increases your odds of admission.
When developing your application strategy, you may also want to take advantage of Rolling and Early Action application rounds. Schools that offer Rolling Admission—such as Penn State and Loyola University Chicago—allow students to submit their applications as early as August and receive admissions decisions shortly thereafter. Some schools that offer Early Action—including Case Western and Fordham University—also give students a chance to learn their admissions results in December. (Note that not all Early Action schools release admissions decisions in December. Some offer results in January or later.)
STILL STRUGGLING TO SIFT THROUGH YOUR OPTIONS?
Feel free to reach out to us! Every year, we help students understand their odds of admission at their target schools and work with them to develop application strategies that allow them to apply with confidence.
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9 replies on “When Your “Safeties” Are No Longer Safe”
You are right it is definitely getting harder, but the quality of applicants to say, Northeastern or Tufts is not the same level as Cornell or Brown. For example, if the Northeastern applicant has a good test score, their EC’s may be blah, or vice versa. I think the vast majority of the applicants to the second and third tier schools just don’t have much of a chance at the Ivies or top 20 no matter what the acceptance rate says. A lot of low quality applicants are applying after the test optional policies.
Thanks, Jeremiah! The Tufts pool is actually VERY selective, comparable to Ivies, but we would agree on NE. Thanks again for reading!
I don’t agree. I think NE has become extremely selective in the past few years because the pool of students applying and being accepted are often at the top of their class with great test scores, gpa & EC. They are often candidates for ivies but due to the low acceptance rate of ivies they end up in NE. As a result the students currently enrolled are much higher caliber than in the past. I think these applicants all had a chance at ivies & top 20 universities. Think about it, if ivies were unable to accept all these extraordinary students they are going to end up at a top 50 school. NE has a better chance than even some top 20 at grabbing these high caliber students because its has so many things to offer most notably an excellent co-op program and a coveted location in the heart of a major city, Boston. Since the alumni pool is growing stronger and the alumnus help support the co-op program the newer generation of students are looking to take advantage of the opportunity to get a leg up on securing employment with co-op(s) under their belt. NU is definitely on the rise despite its current under deserved ranking. Excellent school that is still growing and expanding.
Tufts is a great school, but no way it competes with the Ivies. I say this only because Tufts never competes head to head with the top schools. How is that you ask? The reject almost every RD applicant with good stats. So does Washington University in St. Louis. Tulane is a newcomer to this practice. And I might even add UChicago to that list, and they hide all their admissions data. The ones relying so heavily on Early Decision strike me as as suffering from paranoid insecurity as they show fear of direct competition.
In response to these additional comments…
Regarding Tufts and NE, there are many factors at work. As pointed out, there is the “Ivy overflow” effect – many top students get rejected from the Ivies and apply to Wash U, Tufts, NE, etc… – so there are many strong students in that pool, also many weaker students (at NE in particular because of optional test scores/no essays which attracts some students who just throw in an application). Tufts does compete with Ivies, again for the students who may not get in during the early round. It’s not true that Tufts rejects all students with high grades/scores in regular. What you may be seeing is more a reflection of a student’s “demonstrated interest” in Tufts. If the student has never visited, interacted, etc… and randomly applies to Tufts with high numbers, they often get rejected or Waitlisted as Tufts might assume they would not attend their school. But we have had many strong students accepted to Tufts.
The factors at play are: regular round volume of applicants, trying to determine demonstrated interest (why didn’t the student apply ED I or EDII), test optional/essay optional, to name a few.
No essays and test-optional needed for Northeastern surely made its applicat pool double or triple, thus that low acceptance ratio. Many universities want to distinguish themselves based on that number rather than the quality of its offering and of their applicant pool, heritage, etc
You’re right about admissions getting harder. If a student’s actives are mostly in environmental science but gpa is that high so if he applies to UC in sociology major to later transfer. How would his application evaluated?
‘Tufts Syndrome’ is more famous than ‘Tufts’ itself in elite college lexicon (google it if you are unaware). I think that kind dispels any notion that Tufts is a real competitor with the Ivies. Vanderbilt Yes. Duke Yes. Tufts no. And Northeastern? Well, someone did a masterful job in making a kit car look like a Ferrari many years ago in the NE admissions dept. That is all I have to say about NE. Decent school, but WAY overrated. I do mean WAY too.
Top Tier will definitely get you into your safeties- they got my friend into an Ivy. They know their stuff!