During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, Georgetown University admitted only a small fraction of its applicants, with an acceptance rate of 12.9%. That headline figure alone, though, doesn’t tell you very much. Where does that number come from? And what factors are actually shaping it? While Georgetown does release portions of its admissions data, understanding what’s really happening requires a closer, more nuanced look. Each year, we analyze admissions data from highly selective institutions to help students better understand the landscape and make smarter, more informed decisions.
Vanderbilt Engineering Undergrad Admissions Strategy
Vanderbilt is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. The school is popular for many reasons, from its economic majors to medical research to sports. It is also home to the oldest and largest private engineering school in the South: the Vanderbilt School of Engineering. Since 1879, Vanderbilt has been offering impressive programs for hopeful engineers. Vanderbilt doesn’t publish a separate acceptance rate for their engineering school. We would guess it is similar (or possibly slightly lower) to the overall acceptance rate, which means it is incredibly competitive. Last year, their overall acceptance rate was about This is a highly competitive rate, meaning that if you are serious about Vanderbilt, you must be a top candidate. There are a couple of steps you need to take to be a competitive applicant to Vanderbilt Engineering. Thankfully, we are here to break them down.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Swarthmore 2026
Swarthmore is small and tight-knit. They are very careful about who they let in not just academically, but also culturally. This drives down the acceptance rate, and the Swarthmore acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was only when you average out the higher Early Decision rate of admission and the much lower Regular Decision acceptance rate.
Vanderbilt Admissions Statistics 2025
During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, Vanderbilt University reported an acceptance rate of 5,86%, their lowest ever and firmly placing it among the most selective universities in the country. Not a shocker it’s considered the Ivy of the South! But that top-line statistic doesn’t explain much on its own. How is that number determined? What forces are pushing it lower each year? While Vanderbilt shares some admissions data publicly, getting real clarity requires peeling back another layer (okay, onion!). We do deep-dives into the raw admissions data annually to help students approach highly selective admissions with realistic expectations and intentional strategy.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Northeastern 2026
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Johns Hopkins 2026
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Boston College 2026
Boston College is a private research university with Jesuit origins and a welcoming community. They received nearly 40,000 applications for the , and the acceptance rate was only 13.9%. However, if you read the in March 2025, before decision day and any waitlist action, the acceptance rate was 12.6%. This helps us identify that BC admitted approximately 1% of the first year class from the waitlist.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Duke 2026
Duke is one of the most well-respected private research universities in the country, and getting in is unsurprisingly difficult. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was ( it was reported lower, but that was before waitlist admissions). For Early Decision applicants, the acceptance rate was 12.6%, while the Regular Decision acceptance rate was 4.2%.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Carnegie Mellon 2026
The first-year rate of acceptance at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is extremely program-specific. Some programs are exceedingly difficult to get into, while others are more accessible. Of course, they don’t publicize many of these details, though. The overall reported acceptance rate is about , and they have received upwards of 33,000 applications in recent years for just 1,800 spots in the first-year class.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Pomona College 2026
Pomona College aims for a first-year class of 450, but sometimes it takes some finessing to get there. Pomona admissions says that they waitlist of Regular Decision applicants, and the Pomona waitlist has been slowly growing. For students enrolling for fall 2023, there were students on the waitlist. The next year, the list had students hoping for a spot. And in the 2025-2026 Common Data Set, Pomona 716 of 1017 waitlisted students chose to accept the offer to wait and see.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Rice 2026
Rice University is a highly-selective private research university in Houston, Texas and an acceptance rate. For admission in the fall of 2024, Rice offered nearly 4,000 students a spot on the waitlist — nearly twice as many students as they had even accepted. The desire of applicants to get in wasn’t hampered by the waitlist decision, though. Of that group of students offered a place on the waitlist, even more students than were accepted, 2,794, chose to join the waitlist. Eventually, were offered a spot in the first-year class.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Notre Dame 2026
Notre Dame is one of the most famed private research universities — and athletic powerhouses — in the country, and they have experienced a significant uptick in applications over the last few years. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029, in fact, fell to . This marks the continuation of an aggressive trend, as the acceptance rate for Notre Dame has “dropped roughly 15% in the last decade.”
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Amherst College 2026
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Tufts 2026
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by the University of Virginia 2026
The University of Virginia, or UVA, is one of the most selective public universities in the country. The acceptance rate, though, is a bit misleading. As a public university, UVA prioritizes in-state applicants. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029, then, is an average of two difference rates of acceptance: the higher in-state acceptance rate and the much lower out-of-state acceptance rate. The overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 but the in-state acceptance rate was 11%, and 29.5% for Early Decision applicants. For out-of-state applicants, the regular decision acceptance rate was 9% and Early Decision was 21%.
Brown Admissions Statistics 2025
For the 2024–2025 cycle, Brown University reported an overall acceptance rate of 5.38%, in line with peers such as Dartmouth and Penn, which both reported around 5.4%. On its own, that figure doesn’t tell us much beyond the obvious: admission to schools at this level is brutally competitive. When you’re dealing with ultra‑selective institutions, surface-level stats only scratch the surface. To actually understand what’s happening, you have to look at patterns over time, shifts in applicant pools, and how different parts of the process interact with one another. And that’s exactly why we dig into this data every year, to help students approach the admissions process with smarter, more informed strategies.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by The University of Michigan 2026
The University of Michigan is known as a “,” and is one of the best research universities in the world. They receive first-year applications annually. The overall acceptance rate for first-year applicants to The University of Michigan is , but that number is misleading because it includes both out-of-state applicants and in-state applicants, who receive preference in the admissions process. of the students in any new first-year class are residents of Michigan.
Stanford Admissions Statistics 2025
In the 2024–2025 application cycle, Stanford reported an admit rate of 3.61%. On its own, that figure sounds definitive – but it raises more questions than it answers. What factors actually drive it? And what information can we glean from the process by taking a deep dive into Stanford’s statistics? While schools like Stanford release select headline stats, understanding what’s happening beneath the surface requires a deeper look. Each year, we break down the data behind ultra-selective admissions so our students aren’t just guessing when they compete for spots at top colleges.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Williams College 2026
Williams is a highly-selective and equally highly-sought after small liberal arts college known for deep woods and even deeper thinkers. The acceptance rate for the was 8.5%. This continues a long-term downward trend in the Williams acceptance rate, which has dropped from about 14% to that 8.5% number over the past decade. The driver for this decline has been a huge increase in the number of applications submitted, while the number of students accepted has held fairly steady. Williams has, however, to expand housing capacity for first-years such that they can increase the size of the incoming class. As they make these small adjustments, applicants may well see shifts in the role the waitlist plays as Williams’ admissions team calibrates for new targets.
What to Do if You’re Waitlisted by Vanderbilt 2026
Vanderbilt has soared in popularity in recent years, and the acceptance rate has plummeted in response. For the Class of 2029, they logged a record-low acceptance rate of . They attribute this to both a surge in applications and a rise in their yield rate. With more accepted students committing to Vanderbilt, they don’t need to accept as many students to fill the first-year class. If you are a waitlisted applicant, that isn’t the best news — but there are also actions you can take to make your chances of an eventual admission much stronger. First, though, let’s talk numbers.