Early Action and Early Decision vs. Regular Decision Admission Rates

Here’s a fact that may surprise you—college admissions offices will be sweating every bit as much as college applicants during this college application season.

While anxiety-filled students are praying for acceptance into their first-choices schools, equally nervous admissions directors are trying desperately to ensure that they meet their enrollment targets in the spring. Amazingly, the majority of colleges fail to meet this goal and they are pining for strong candidates that are willing to commit to their school. This is why applying early decision, which is binding, can be a strategic advantage for applicants. Below you will find the ED acceptance rates and regular decision acceptance rates for some of the most prestigious schools in the United States. Where applicable, we included non-binding, early action admission rates as well.

*Data collected from 2021-22 Common Data Set (CDS) forms and institution websites, and indicates admission outcomes for students entering in Fall 2021, the most recent year for which data is made available.

Table updated October 2022

InstitutionED Admission RateEA Admission RateRegular Admission Rate (Excluding EA/ED)Admission Rate (Freshman Overall)
Agnes Scott College82%70%70%
Allegheny College56%91%63%75%
American University87%63%64%
Amherst College24%8%9%
Babson College38%32%15%25%
Bard College89%60%60%
Barnard College33%8%11%
Bates College60%14%17%
Beloit College85%82%67%67%
Bennington College41%72%55%60%
Bentley University70%61%61%
Binghamton University61%34%44%
Boston College39%17%19%
Boston University33%17%19%
Bowdoin College27%7%9%
Brandeis University56%39%39%
Brown University16%4%6%
Bryant University84%86%60%74%
Bryn Mawr College57%38%39%
Bucknell University55%33%35%
Butler University88%65%81%
California Institute of Technology4%4%4%
Carleton College22%17%18%
Carnegie Mellon University20%13%14%
Case Western Reserve University36%30%30%
Centre College88%81%76%76%
Chapman University48%73%52%60%
Claremont McKenna College29%9%11%
Colby College42%7%9%
Colgate University40%15%17%
College of Charleston81%86%45%66%
College of the Holy Cross82%41%43%
College of William and Mary49%36%37%
Colorado College29%17%9%14%
Colorado State University-Fort Collins92%84%90%
Columbia University in the City of New York10%3%4%
Connecticut College52%40%41%
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art24%12%13%
Cornell University21%7%9%
Creighton University82%73%78%
Dartmouth College25%4%6%
Davidson College44%14%18%
Denison University43%25%26%
DePaul University78%62%69%
DePauw University67%65%65%
Dickinson College69%47%48%
Drew University98%79%80%
Drexel University94%97%82%83%
Duke University25%6%8%
Earlham College84%69%69%
Eckerd College84%54%70%
Elon University89%78%77%78%
Emerson College80%56%36%36%
Emory University26%12%13%
Fairfield University87%90%31%56%
Florida Southern College86%79%55%61%
Fordham University68%63%55%58%
Franklin and Marshall College57%36%38%
Furman University48%84%72%71%
George Mason University91%92%91%
George Washington University66%49%50%
Georgetown University11%12%12%
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus24%21%21%
Gettysburg College64%56%56%
Grinnell College58%8%11%
Hamilton College41%12%14%
Harvard University14%3%5%
Harvey Mudd College21%9%10%
Haverford College43%15%18%
Hendrix College68%59%68%
High Point University84%87%62%80%
Hobart William Smith Colleges83%67%68%
Hofstra University78%56%68%
Illinois Wesleyan University79%31%45%
Ithaca College95%95%67%78%
James Madison University81%86%86%
Johns Hopkins University15%6%8%
Juniata College89%84%68%74%
Kalamazoo College76%84%76%80%
Kenyon College62%35%37%
Lafayette College53%40%41%
Lake Forest College39%72%53%64%
Lawrence University80%90%62%75%
Lehigh University73%47%50%
Lewis & Clark College86%92%79%79%
Linfield College-McMinnville Campus99%75%83%
Loyola Marymount University33%67%31%46%
Loyola University Maryland92%73%84%
Macalester College49%58%12%27%
Marist College79%72%60%60%
Massachusetts Institute of Technology5%4%4%
Miami University-Oxford95%98%70%89%
Middlebury College45%11%13%
Mount Holyoke College54%52%52%
Muhlenberg College81%67%68%
New College of Florida86%69%73%
New York UniversityNot Reported13%13%
North Carolina State University at Raleigh53%35%47%
Northeastern University51%17%18%
Northwestern University24%5%7%
Oberlin College44%36%34%
Occidental College59%37%38%
Ohio State University-Main Campus64%42%57%
Ohio University-Main Campus98%89%89%
Ohio Wesleyan University53%87%55%68%
Pitzer College47%15%18%
Pomona College13%6%7%
Princeton UniversityNot Reported4%4%
Providence College87%59%54%58%
Quinnipiac University93%95%88%88%
Ramapo College of New Jersey80%82%57%70%
Reed College43%31%31%
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute70%96%55%57%
Rhodes College65%61%57%57%
Rice University18%9%9%
Rochester Institute of Technology93%70%71%
Rollins College47%49%49%
Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology78%73%77%
Saint Johns University92%84%89%
Santa Clara University84%83%32%54%
Sarah Lawrence College65%70%49%57%
Scripps College51%28%30%
Skidmore College53%29%31%
Smith College61%34%37%
Soka University of America30%68%53%
Southern Methodist University55%53%53%
Southwestern University56%66%40%51%
Spelman College50%71%39%51%
St John's University-New York100%93%80%85%
St Lawrence University81%55%57%
St Olaf College48%78%32%47%
St. John's College86%69%43%53%
St. John's College70%80%53%63%
St. Mary's College of Maryland89%89%65%77%
Stanford UniversityNot Reported4%4%
Stetson University79%88%99%92%
Stevens Institute of Technology58%52%53%
Stonehill College88%83%67%68%
SUNY at Albany89%60%68%
SUNY College at Geneseo66%74%74%
SUNY College at Oswego86%72%80%
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry68%65%65%
Swarthmore College24%6%8%
Syracuse University62%59%59%
Temple University85%62%72%
Texas Christian University53%71%31%54%
The College of New Jersey79%61%62%
The College of Wooster70%79%40%61%
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville86%57%75%
The University of the South72%78%40%60%
Trinity College60%34%36%
Trinity University66%68%33%34%
Tufts UniversityNot ReportedNot Reported11%
Tulane University of Louisiana31%12%8%10%
Union College61%62%37%47%
University of ChicagoNot ReportedNot ReportedNot Reported6%
University of Colorado Boulder91%80%80%
University of Denver38%91%63%63%
University of Maryland-College Park60%38%52%
University of Massachusetts-Amherst74%66%66%
University of Miami65%27%27%28%
University of Michigan-Ann ArborNot ReportedNot Reported20%
University of North Carolina at Asheville77%82%82%
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill26%10%19%
University of North Carolina at Charlotte88%80%80%
University of North Carolina Wilmington75%54%68%
University of Notre Dame24%12%15%
University of Pennsylvania15%4%6%
University of Puget Sound51%93%89%88%
University of Rhode Island91%55%76%
University of Richmond56%32%21%29%
University of Rochester45%40%41%
University of San Francisco60%82%67%71%
University of Vermont59%74%64%
University of Virginia-Main Campus44%22%16%21%
Ursinus College89%93%83%83%
Vanderbilt University18%6%7%
Vassar College40%19%20%
Villanova University60%20%23%25%
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University58%Not ReportedNot Reported56%
Wake Forest UniversityNot ReportedNot Reported25%
Washington and Lee University48%16%19%
Washington University in St Louis29%11%13%
Wellesley College39%18%20%
Wesleyan University55%17%19%
Wheaton College (IL)91%80%86%
Wheaton College (MA)76%90%67%77%
Whitman College60%59%59%
Willamette University76%87%73%79%
Williams College33%7%9%
Worcester Polytechnic Institute77%72%33%60%
Yale University11%4%5%
Yeshiva University47%67%67%

Colleges Worth Your Money

2024 Edition

A Guide to What America's Top Schools Can Do for You


Buy on Amazon Now
College Transitions Dataverse Book Image