College Acceptance Rates (2026)
Last updated: March 2026 · Sources: NCES IPEDS, College Scorecard, Common Data Sets
The national average acceptance rate across all four-year institutions is roughly 66%. But that number obscures enormous variation: from 3% at Caltech to 91% at the University of Kansas.
Acceptance rates get more attention than they deserve. A school that admits 5% of applicants is not automatically a better fit than one that admits 50%. What acceptance rate actually tells you is how many people applied relative to how many spots exist. When application volume rises (and it has, by 45% since 2019), acceptance rates drop even if schools are admitting the same number of students.[^1]
This page gives you the raw data for 50 notable schools, then explains what these numbers mean in practice so you can focus on fit instead of selectivity theater.
Acceptance Rates for 50 Notable Schools
Sorted by acceptance rate (lowest to highest) · 2024–25 admissions cycle
| School | Acceptance Rate | Yield Rate | Selectivity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Caltech | 3% | 50% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Harvard University | 3.4% | 82% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Stanford University | 3.7% | 80% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| MIT | 3.9% | 76% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Columbia University | 3.9% | 63% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Yale University | 4.4% | 69% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Princeton University | 4.5% | 72% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Brown University | 5% | 66% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| University of Chicago | 5.4% | 60% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Duke University | 5.7% | 58% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| University of Pennsylvania | 5.8% | 68% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Johns Hopkins University | 6% | 52% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Dartmouth College | 6.2% | 64% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Vanderbilt University | 6.7% | 50% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Northwestern University | 7% | 56% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Rice University | 7.5% | 46% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Cornell University | 7.9% | 62% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| UCLA | 9% | 44% | Most Selective (<10%) |
| Tufts University | 10% | 42% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Carnegie Mellon University | 11% | 40% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Georgetown University | 12% | 46% | Selective (10–25%) |
| USC | 12% | 39% | Selective (10–25%) |
| NYU | 12% | 35% | Selective (10–25%) |
| UC Berkeley | 12% | 43% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Emory University | 13% | 34% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Northeastern University | 13% | 28% | Selective (10–25%) |
| University of Notre Dame | 13% | 58% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Boston University | 14% | 26% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Boston College | 15% | 32% | Selective (10–25%) |
| University of Michigan | 18% | 42% | Selective (10–25%) |
| University of Virginia | 19% | 38% | Selective (10–25%) |
| Wake Forest University | 20% | 34% | Selective (10–25%) |
| University of Florida | 23% | 40% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| University of Texas at Austin | 29% | 44% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| University of Georgia | 32% | 37% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Purdue University | 43% | 30% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Clemson University | 43% | 28% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Virginia Tech | 44% | 30% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Ohio State University | 46% | 30% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Penn State University | 47% | 28% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Texas A&M University | 48% | 42% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| University of Wisconsin-Madison | 49% | 32% | Moderately Selective (25–50%) |
| Michigan State University | 72% | 25% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| Indiana University | 80% | 22% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| University of Alabama | 80% | 24% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| University of Oregon | 86% | 20% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| University of Mississippi | 87% | 26% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| Arizona State University | 88% | 25% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| Iowa State University | 90% | 24% | Less Selective (50%+) |
| University of Kansas | 91% | 28% | Less Selective (50%+) |
Sources: NCES IPEDS admission data (nces.ed.gov/ipeds), College Scorecard (collegescorecard.ed.gov), and individual institution Common Data Set reports for the 2024–25 admissions cycle.[^2][^3]
Most and Least Selective Schools
Most Selective Schools (Under 10% Acceptance)
Least Selective Schools (50%+ Acceptance)
Context matters: Arizona State admits 88% of applicants and enrolls over 80,000 undergraduates. Harvard admits 3.4% and enrolls about 1,600 per class. Both serve their students well. The “best” school is the one where you will thrive academically, socially, and financially.
Application Volume Is Driving Rates Down
The Common Application processed over 8.1 million applications in the 2024–25 cycle, up from 5.6 million in 2019–20. That is a 45% increase in five years.[^4] The number of first-year college students has not grown by anywhere near 45%. What changed is how many schools each student applies to.
In 2000, the typical applicant applied to 4–5 schools. Today, the average is 7–9 applications, and it is not unusual for students to submit 15–20. Each additional application pushes acceptance rates lower across the board, even when schools are not reducing class sizes.
Source: Common Application annual reports. Total applications submitted through the Common App platform, 2019–2025.[^4]
What Acceptance Rate Actually Tells You
Acceptance rate is a measure of demand, not quality. A school can lower its acceptance rate by encouraging more applications (marketing blitzes, fee waivers, Common App membership) without changing anything about the education it provides.
Northeastern University is a well-known example. In 2005, it accepted about 50% of applicants. By 2025, that number dropped to around 13%. The school did not become three times harder overnight. What changed was the volume of applications, driven by aggressive recruitment, co-op program marketing, and Common App adoption.
When evaluating a school, look past the acceptance rate. Ask instead:
Graduation rate
What percentage of students finish in four years? This reflects actual student outcomes, not application hype.
Yield rate
How many admitted students actually choose to attend? High yield suggests students genuinely prefer the school.
Earnings after graduation
College Scorecard publishes median earnings 10 years after enrollment. Check what your degree is worth.
Net price
How much will you actually pay after financial aid? A prestigious school you cannot afford is not a good fit.
Understanding Yield Rates
Yield rate is the percentage of admitted students who enroll. Harvard’s yield rate is 82%, meaning nearly every admitted student says yes. Stanford’s is 80%. These are the highest in the country.[^2]
Most schools have yield rates between 20% and 40%. That means if a school wants a freshman class of 1,000, it needs to admit 2,500–5,000 students to fill those seats. This is why waitlists exist. If yield comes in below projections, the school pulls from the waitlist to fill the gap.
Yield rates have been declining at most schools for the same reason acceptance rates are declining: students apply to more schools, so any single school is less likely to be their first choice. Early Decision programs are one tool schools use to lock in yield, since ED applicants commit to attend if admitted.
How Test-Optional Policies Affect Rates
As of 2025, roughly 80% of four-year colleges and universities in the U.S. are test-optional, meaning they do not require SAT or ACT scores for admission.[^5] This is a direct legacy of COVID-era policy changes that most institutions decided to keep.
The impact on acceptance rates has been straightforward: removing a barrier to applying increases the number of applications. NACAC research found that schools adopting test-optional policies saw application increases of 10–30% in the first year. More applications with roughly the same number of seats pushes acceptance rates lower.[^5]
For students, this means that a 12% acceptance rate in 2025 is not directly comparable to a 12% acceptance rate in 2019. The applicant pool is larger and more diverse, but the number of admitted students has not changed proportionally.
Worth noting: several highly selective schools (MIT, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Brown, Yale) have returned to requiring standardized tests, citing data that test scores improve their ability to predict student success. This trend may continue.
The 30% You Never Hear About
About 30% of four-year institutions in the United States are “open admission,” meaning they accept nearly all applicants who meet basic requirements (usually a high school diploma or GED).[^2] These schools rarely show up in acceptance rate rankings because their rates are not dramatic enough to generate clicks.
Community colleges, which serve nearly 40% of all U.S. undergraduates, are almost universally open admission. If your primary concern is access to higher education, the system is more open than headlines suggest. The selectivity conversation applies to a narrow band of institutions that enroll a small fraction of all college students.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is the average college acceptance rate in the United States?
- Across all four-year institutions, the average acceptance rate is approximately 66%, according to NCES IPEDS data. However, this includes hundreds of open-admission schools. For the schools most applicants are comparing, the median acceptance rate is closer to 50%.
- Why have acceptance rates dropped so much in the last five years?
- The drop is primarily driven by a surge in application volume, not fewer spots. Common App reports that total applications are up 45% since 2019. Students now apply to 7-9 schools on average, up from 4-5 in 2000. More applications per student means lower acceptance rates even when class sizes stay the same.
- Does a low acceptance rate mean a school is better?
- Not necessarily. Acceptance rate measures demand relative to supply. A school can have a low acceptance rate because of brand recognition and marketing, not academic quality. Schools that aggressively encourage applications (through fee waivers and direct outreach) inflate their application count, which pushes acceptance rates down.
- How does test-optional admission affect acceptance rates?
- Test-optional policies have increased application volume at nearly every school that adopted them. When the barrier to applying drops (no test score required), more students apply. According to NACAC, schools that went test-optional saw application increases of 10-30% in the first year. This contributes to lower acceptance rates.
- What is yield rate and why does it matter?
- Yield rate is the percentage of admitted students who choose to enroll. Harvard has an 82% yield rate, meaning 82 out of every 100 admitted students say yes. Most schools have yield rates between 20-40%, which means they must admit many more students than they have seats for. Schools use waitlists and enrollment management strategies to hit their target class size.
References
- National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). IPEDS Admissions Component: Fall 2024. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/use-the-data
- U.S. Department of Education. (2025). College Scorecard Data. https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/
- National Center for Education Statistics. (2025). Digest of Education Statistics: Table 305.40 — Acceptance rates for first-time degree-seeking students. U.S. Department of Education. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d24/tables/dt24_305.40.asp
- Common Application. (2025). Application Trends Through January 2025. https://www.commonapp.org/info/annual-report
- National Association for College Admission Counseling. (2024). Use of Standardized Tests in College Admission. NACAC. https://www.nacacnet.org/knowledge-center/admission-standards/
Cite This Page
CollegeHelpGuide. (2026). College acceptance rates (2026). CollegeHelpGuide.com. https://www.collegehelpguide.com/applications/college-acceptance-rates/
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