Now that it’s nearly April, the 2025-26 application cycle has wrapped up for most colleges. We’re starting to see patterns–and new records–emerge in the admissions numbers across different schools.
The Common Application reported on March 12 that more than 1.4 million distinct first-year applicants had applied to 911 returning institutional members, an increase of 2% over this time last year. Application volume rose this year to more than 9.4 million — a gain of 5% year over year. Students applied to 6.59 colleges on average this year compared to 6.41 schools last year.
As you’ll see in the table, most colleges had lower acceptance rates than last year. Meanwhile, Princeton, Cornell, and Stanford continued to withhold their admit rates, a pattern that has continued over the last few cycles. Barnard College hasn’t shared their admit numbers either—last year they decided to withhold acceptance rates.
Records Galore in Application and Acceptance Numbers
At Brown, the 3.94% of regular decision rate for the incoming class is a slight decrease from last year’s 4% regular decision acceptance rate. Columbia received a combined total of 61,031 applications for Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences—1,415 more applicants than last year. This is the largest applicant pool in the university’s history.
Bowdoin also saw a record low acceptance rate. According to the Bowdoin Orient, “A total of 962 students out of 14,727 applicants across all rounds were offered admission for a 6.5 percent acceptance rate.” Even though Penn has withheld its acceptance rate, the school disclosed that over 61,000 students applied this year—a decrease from last year’s applicant pool of over 72,000.
Yale saw its second largest applicant pool—47,779. According to The Yale Daily News, “the total pool for regular decision included an additional 1,285 deferred students, or 18 percent of the 7,140 early applicants.”
USC, which is yet to reveal its admit rates, has announced that the incoming class boasts a grade point average of 3.92—an all-time record for the university. At Notre Dame, the acceptance rate remained at a record-low for two years in a row.
Class of 2030 Acceptance Rates
Take a look at the table below for Class of 2030 acceptance rates at highly selective colleges that have released data so far and how the numbers compare to last year’s.
| School | Class of 2030 Admit Rate | Class of 2029 Admit Rate |
|---|---|---|
| Bowdoin College | 6.5% | 6.8% |
| Brown University | 5.4% | 5.7% |
| Columbia University | 4.2% | 4.9% |
| Emory University | 12.3% | 15% |
| MIT | 4.58% | 4.56% |
| Northwestern University | 7% | 7% |
| Swarthmore College | 7.4% | 7.4% |
| Tufts University | 10% | 10.8% |
| University of Notre Dame | 9% | 9.4% |
| University of Virginia | 12.5% | 17.1% |
| Williams College | 7.98% | 8.61% |
| Yale University | 4.24% | 4.75% |
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