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To absolutely no one’s surprise, this was a very competitive year for college applications. With each passing year more applicants pen Early Action and Early Decision love letters to their dream schools. In response, top schools have carried on with their tradition of accepting a very small percentage of these eager applicant pools (but still more than the Regular Decision pool).
As schools announce their acceptance rates, we will update this list, so make sure to check back!
Barnard: Acceptance rates not released
Brown: 18.4%
Columbia: TBA
Cornell: Acceptance rates not released
Dartmouth: Acceptance rates not released
Duke: 12.8%
Emory: 27.6%
Harvard: TBA
MIT: 5.98%
Notre Dame: 12.9%
Princeton: TBA
Rice: 13.2%
University of Georgia: 31% (41.6% in-state; 23.5% out-of-state)
UPenn: Acceptance rates not released
UVA: 29.5% in-state; 21% out-of-state
Williams: 26.6%
Yale: 10.8%
If you didn’t receive the news you were hoping for this month, remember that you are in the majority! College admissions is incredibly competitive in the U.S. and getting a rejection or deferral does not mean that you still can’t secure admission to a school that is a great fit for you. Just follow our advice and keep calm. As Dorothy once sang in Wizard of Oz, “Somewhere over the rainbow/ Way up high/ There’s a college that I heard of/ Once in a catalogue.” (There’s a chance we’re remembering part of that wrong.)
Write a deferral letter! Set yourself apart from other deferred applicants by going the extra mile to reconfirm your interest.
Interested in running a draft by one of our College Essay Advisors to make sure it’s the best it can be? Get in touch!
It depends! Some schools release their acceptance rates simultaneously with their decision notifications, whereas others wait until the spring.
Typically, yes. More applicants tend to be accepted via Early Action and Early Decision then via Regular Decision.