Posted on: 13 Aug 2026
With an acceptance rate under 4% (yes, truly), Caltech is one of the most highly selective schools in the country. The most recent complete figure is 3.78% for the Class of 2029, when 427 students were admitted from 11,285 applicants, and Caltech extended 428 offers for the Class of 2030. Although ACT or SAT results […]
Posted on: 13 Aug 2026
Back in the ’90s, American University had an acceptance rate of nearly 80%. In recent years, the acceptance rate has swung widely, falling as low as 26% before rebounding north of 60% in the most recent cycles. Test-optional for over a decade, this Washington, DC, university utilizes a truly holistic method of assessing candidates, which […]
Posted on: 13 Aug 2026
With roughly 77,000 applications from those wishing to join the Class of 2029, Boston University has entered the realm of the most desirable private universities on the planet. It also continues to sit at new heights in terms of selectivity, with a 12.8% acceptance rate in that most recent completed cycle. In contrast, just twenty […]
Posted on: 13 Aug 2026
Applicants to the Brown Class of 2030 were greeted with a 5.35% acceptance rate, drawn from a record 47,937 applications. Given that 19 of every 20 applicants are turned away, even many valedictorians with perfect test scores, aspiring Brown undergrads need to find a way to stand out from a pack of similarly credentialed teens. […]
Posted on: 13 Aug 2026
When applying to a school like Carnegie Mellon that only accepts 11% of applicants, it’s important to keep in mind that the other 89% of applicants will ultimately be denied admission. Many of these rejected individuals will have straight A’s in high school and/or SATs in the 1500s. Those applying to certain programs, computer science […]
Posted on: 12 Aug 2026
Consider the rower first. Nine of the twenty-six elite Division III colleges in this analysis field rowing at all. At those nine, rowing accounts for about 20 roster places per entering class, one of the three largest per-college squads in the division. Seventeen of the twenty-six colleges offer nothing. Now the golfer. Twenty-one of the […]
Posted on: 05 Aug 2026
Most universities that draw more applicants become harder to enter. Case Western Reserve did the opposite. Its applicant pool grew from about 33,000 for the Fall 2021 class to more than 39,000 for Fall 2025, and across the same stretch the admit rate rose from 30 percent to 35 percent, touching nearly 38 percent along […]
Posted on: 30 Jul 2026
A high school senior in Bucks County opens her Penn State decision in December and finds good news and a complication in the same letter. She is admitted to University Park for the fall, which is what she wanted. She is not admitted to the Smeal College of Business, which is also what she wanted. […]