Regular Decision acceptance rates continue to plummet at top schools; some see application volume level off.
March went out like a lion. Over the past two weeks, highly selective colleges and universities released decisions and shared data on their shockingly large applicant pools. From university press releases to college student newspapers, headlines pointed to record-low rates of admission for students who applied in the regular round. In some cases, (Tufts, Brown), these low admit rates were the function of continued growth in application volume; others (Emory, Barnard), admitted more students through binding Early Decision, helping to lower overall selectivity. Some colleges (like Boston University), citing over enrollment in previous classes, reduced the number of students admitted, despite the record-high application volume.
REGULAR DECISION ACCEPTANCE RATES: QUICK ROUND-UP
Boston University is looking to prevent a third-straight semester of over enrollment following a record-setting 80,747 student applications for the Class of 2026. The Office of Admissions set a target enrollment of 3,200 students for the Class of 2025 last year, but ultimately enrolled 4,011, said Kelly Walter, associate vice president for enrollment and BU’s dean of admissions. Walter said the biggest factor that contributed to this year’s over enrollment was the shift to a test-optional admissions process and a 24 percent increase in first-year applications, the largest year-to-year jump in the school’s history. BU is expecting 3,100 applicants to enroll this fall, 100 students less than last year’s target. Although the university has not released a full set of statistics, it’s clear from Walters’ comments that this year’s rate of admission will be lower than last year’s record low of 18.3 percent.
Brown admitted 5 percent of applicants to their Class of 2026; the rate of admission dropped to 3.6 percent for those students applying in Regular Decision. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2026 sets another record low for admission, following a 5.4 percent acceptance rate for the Class of 2025. In 2020, by comparison, the University accepted 6.9 percent of applicants to the Class of 2024. Brown also saw one of the most significant increases in application volume this year. A combined 50,649 students applied to the Class of 2026 through Regular and Early Decision, an almost 9 percent increase from last year’s pool, and approximately 4,100 students more than the previous record of 46,568 applicants set by the Class of 2025.
Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science have released offers of admission to 2,253 students, according to the office of undergraduate admissions. This year’s acceptance rate was 3.73 percent, a slight increase from last year’s 3.66 percent acceptance rate, the lowest in Columbia history. In total, 60,377 students applied to Columbia College and SEAS during the 2021-22 admissions cycle, a slight decrease from the 60,551 applicants in 2020-21 but still significantly more than the 40,083 applicants in 2019-20.
Dartmouth offered admission to 1,767 applicants to the Class of 2026—1,207 of whom were admitted during the Regular Decision process—from a pool of 28,336 applications, according to an announcement from the admissions office. The acceptance rate of 6.24 percent is among the lowest in the College’s history. According to the College’s announcement, this year’s applicant pool contained 21 fewer students than last year’s record pool.
Duke received 50,002 applications for undergraduate admissions this year, up about 1 percent over last year’s pool, which saw the largest year-to-year increase in the school’s history. Of those, 45,941 applied under Duke’s Regular Decision program, up from 44,133 last year. Among the Regular Decision applicant pool, 2,120 students, 4.6 percent, were offered admission.
Georgetown University admitted 12 percent of Regular Decision applicants into the undergraduate Class of 2026, a slight increase from last year’s acceptance rate of 11.7 percent. The university accepted 3,229 students from a pool of 26,670 applicants in the Early Action and Regular Decision cycles. Total applications this year decreased by about 3 percent, although the admissions office reminded us that applications received this year increased by 25 percent compared to pre-pandemic levels. Likely the decision to require testing led fewer students to apply.
Harvard College accepted 3.19 percent of applicants to its Class of 2026—the lowest rate in the school’s history—as it saw a record number of applicants for the second straight year. Applications to Harvard jumped by almost 7 percent, with 61,220 students submitting applications to the school, compared to 57,435 last year.
With an applicant pool that exceeded 105,000 applications this year (a 5 percent increase over last year), NYU saw its admit rate drop to a record-low 12.2 percent of applicants. Three of NYU’s undergraduate colleges admitted fewer than 10 percent of applicants – including the College of Arts and Science (7 percent), the Stern School (7 percent), and the Rory Meyers College of Nursing (3 percent).
Northwestern University received a total of 51,554 applications for the Class of 2026 in the ED and RD cycles—up by almost 4,000 from last year. Northwestern admitted 7 percent of its first-year applicants this year. This year’s acceptance rate has marginally increased from last year’s record low of 6.8 percent.
Some top universities have decided not to share detailed admissions statistics at this stage. Joining Stanford, Princeton, and Cornell is the University of Pennsylvania. When announcing its Regular Decision admission results for the Class of 2026, the university declined to share its acceptance rate. Roughly 55,000 students applied to Penn across both Early Decision and Regular Decision—a decrease from last year’s 56,333, which marked the largest application pool in history. The first-year class is expected to number approximately2,400students.
Applications to Tufts grew by nearly 12 percent over last year to more than 34,880, making it the University’s most selective year on record, according to the Office of Undergraduate Admissions. In total, 9 percent of applicants were offered admission in this record-breaking year. Applications to Tufts have grown by 50 percent in the past two years.
Vanderbilt saw just over 46,610 Regular Decision applicants and admitted 4.7 percent of them. Vanderbilt intentionally does not provide summary data at this point in the process (ED1 + ED2 + RD), but as soon as those figures become available, we’ll update our post to reflect their results.
Yale saw its applicant pool grow by nearly 7 percent to 50,015, up from last year’s record volume of 46,905. The university admitted 2,234 students to the Class of 2026 this year, resulting in an admit rate of 4.46 percent, the lowest in recent history (compared to 4.62 percent for the Class of 2025, 6.54 percent for the Class of 2024 and 5.91 percent for the Class of 2023).
Stay tuned for Part 2 of this series as we will look more closely into characteristics of who was admitted this year.
In addition, Maria is proud of her long-term volunteer work with Opera North (Lebanon, NH) in fundraising, marketing and audience engagement. She is an avid masters rower with the Upper Valley Rowing Foundation (Hanover, NH) and also serves as a member of its board of directors.
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2 replies on “Regular Decision Acceptance Rates: Part I”
Cornell’s rejection letter said they had over 71,000 applicants this cycle and their admissions office separately said they admitted 4,908 applicants, meaning a 6.9% acceptance rate- far below last year and probably the largest drop among the Ivies.
Thank you!