Research · College admissions · October 2026

Acceptance rates at the 100 most-applied-to colleges, 3.5% to 99.3%

As of October 2026: Acceptance rates at the 100 most-applied-to colleges run from 3.5 percent at Harvard to 99.3 percent at Liberty University. Harvard admitted 3.5 percent of 56,937 applicants, and UC Berkeley admitted 10.5 percent of 125,910.

The table shows the share of first-year applicants each college admitted for fall 2023. That is not the share who enrolled, and not the rate for any one major.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

The findings, in plain English

The hardest colleges on this list sit between 3.5 and 5.6 percent. Harvard admitted 3.5 percent of applicants. Stanford admitted 3.9 percent. Columbia admitted 4.2 percent. Yale and Princeton each admitted 4.5 percent. Northeastern admitted 5.6 percent of 96,631 applicants.

Many big public universities admit most students who apply. Penn State admitted 54.2 percent of 85,956 applicants. Ohio State admitted 50.8 percent. Purdue admitted 50.3 percent. UC Santa Barbara admitted 44.0 percent of 110,871 applicants. A crowded pool is not the same as a low acceptance rate.

Two UC campuses can look very different. UC Berkeley admitted 10.5 percent of applicants. UC Merced admitted 94.7 percent. UC Santa Cruz admitted 82.1 percent. UC Irvine admitted 30.3 percent. One system, one form, four very different answers.

Acceptance rates at the most-applied-to colleges

Ordered from the lowest acceptance rate to the highest.

CollegeStateApplicantsAcceptance rate
Harvard University MA 56,937 3.5%
Stanford University CA 53,733 3.9%
Columbia University in the City of New York NY 57,613 4.2%
Yale University CT 51,803 4.5%
Princeton University NJ 39,644 4.5%
University of Chicago IL 38,631 4.8%
Brown University RI 51,316 5.2%
Northeastern University MA 96,631 5.6%
University of Pennsylvania PA 59,465 5.9%
Vanderbilt University TN 45,313 6.3%
Duke University NC 46,365 6.8%
Northwestern University IL 51,769 7.2%
Johns Hopkins University MD 38,926 7.6%
Cornell University NY 65,635 8.2%
New York University NY 113,578 9.4%
University of Southern California CA 80,808 10.0%
Tufts University MA 34,003 10.1%
University of California-Berkeley CA 125,910 10.5%
University of California-Los Angeles CA 145,903 10.8%
Boston University MA 80,495 10.8%
Carnegie Mellon University PA 33,707 11.4%
Washington University in St Louis MO 32,240 12.0%
Boston College MA 36,069 15.7%
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus GA 52,377 16.5%
University of Virginia-Main Campus VA 56,528 16.9%
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI 87,632 17.9%
University of Miami FL 48,286 18.5%
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill NC 57,902 18.7%
University of Florida FL 65,375 24.0%
Florida State University FL 74,038 25.4%
University of California-San Diego CA 130,771 27.2%
Case Western Reserve University OH 39,033 28.7%
The University of Texas at Austin TX 66,109 29.1%
California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo CA 63,736 29.8%
University of California-Irvine CA 121,101 30.3%
San Diego State University CA 82,800 34.4%
University of Georgia GA 43,419 37.2%
Binghamton University NY 49,513 37.7%
Clemson University SC 60,122 38.1%
University of Central Florida FL 60,627 39.5%
North Carolina State University at Raleigh NC 40,049 39.8%
The University of Tampa FL 35,353 40.9%
University of South Florida FL 65,187 41.0%
Syracuse University NY 42,089 41.7%
University of Washington-Seattle Campus WA 62,428 42.5%
University of Wisconsin-Madison WI 63,505 43.3%
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign IL 67,398 43.7%
University of California-Santa Barbara CA 110,871 44.0%
University of Maryland-College Park MD 59,377 44.8%
University of California-Davis CA 94,637 45.8%
The University of Tennessee-Knoxville TN 50,488 46.0%
California State University-Long Beach CA 79,680 47.1%
Stony Brook University NY 50,341 49.0%
University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus PA 58,416 49.7%
Purdue University-Main Campus IN 73,083 50.3%
Auburn University AL 48,178 50.5%
Ohio State University-Main Campus OH 70,028 50.8%
Baylor University TX 39,735 51.0%
University of Connecticut CT 46,645 53.9%
Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus PA 85,956 54.2%
Fordham University NY 43,663 56.3%
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University VA 47,208 57.0%
University of Massachusetts-Amherst MA 50,424 57.8%
CUNY City College NY 31,988 58.1%
Grand Canyon University AZ 47,978 60.4%
University of South Carolina-Columbia SC 46,682 61.5%
Texas A & M University-College Station TX 50,832 63.2%
University of Delaware DE 37,690 65.1%
Rutgers University-New Brunswick NJ 43,347 65.3%
University at Buffalo NY 38,210 69.3%
Texas Tech University TX 34,020 70.9%
University of North Texas TX 36,807 72.5%
DePaul University IL 32,176 73.5%
California State Polytechnic University-Pomona CA 45,775 73.7%
Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College LA 42,558 74.0%
The University of Alabama AL 58,418 75.8%
James Madison University VA 35,750 76.2%
University of Minnesota-Twin Cities MN 39,863 77.0%
Drexel University PA 40,204 77.5%
San Jose State University CA 35,780 80.2%
Indiana University-Bloomington IN 54,279 80.4%
Loyola University Chicago IL 40,468 81.4%
University of California-Santa Cruz CA 68,845 82.1%
Miami University-Oxford OH 34,498 82.1%
Temple University PA 36,399 82.9%
University of Colorado Boulder CO 56,069 83.3%
Michigan State University MI 58,879 83.9%
University of Oregon OR 39,400 85.1%
University of Arizona AZ 56,466 85.7%
California State University-Fullerton CA 48,591 86.7%
University of Cincinnati-Main Campus OH 33,165 87.7%
University of California-Riverside CA 62,807 88.2%
Texas State University TX 37,183 89.5%
Colorado State University-Fort Collins CO 36,612 89.6%
Arizona State University Campus Immersion AZ 68,840 90.2%
Northern Arizona University AZ 37,805 90.9%
California State University-Los Angeles CA 32,748 91.9%
University of California-Merced CA 67,891 94.7%
Southern New Hampshire University NH 45,127 96.1%
Liberty University VA 36,921 99.3%

Fall 2023 entering class, the latest federal file, so a college's own page may show a newer number. The rate is first-year admits divided by first-year applicants for the whole campus. It is not a rate for one major, not a transfer rate, and not the share of admitted students who enrolled.

What an acceptance rate does and does not tell you

An acceptance rate is admits divided by applicants. It describes one campus, one year, and the whole first-year pool. That is all it describes.

A low rate does not mean every applicant has that chance. Strong applicants get in at a higher rate. Weaker ones get in at a lower rate. The one number on the page hides both. It also does not cover one major. At many public universities, engineering, nursing and computer science admit at far lower rates than the campus as a whole.

Why these rates look lower than they used to

Applications have grown faster than seats. UCLA drew 145,903 applications in this file. When the pool grows and the class size stays the same, the rate falls. The college did not get any harder to get into.

One form that reaches many colleges helps explain this. A student fills out one application and sends it to many campuses. Each campus then reports a bigger pool and a lower rate. The rate is a fact about the pool, not just a fact about the college.

What a family should do with this

Build the list from the table in three groups. Pick two or three colleges where the rate is high and your kid's record fits well. Pick a few in the middle. Then pick the low-rate colleges you actually want. Those belong on the list. They just cannot be the whole list.

Then check the major before you trust the campus number. If your kid wants engineering, nursing or computer science, look up the admit rate for that program. It can run far below the rate for the whole campus.

Questions parents ask

What is the acceptance rate at Harvard?

Harvard admitted 3.5 percent of applicants.

Which of the most-applied-to colleges accepts almost everyone?

Acceptance rates at the 100 most-applied-to colleges run from 3.5 percent at Harvard to 99.3 percent at Liberty University.

Does the acceptance rate tell me my kid's chances?

A low rate does not mean every applicant has that chance.

Method & sources: The source is the federal IPEDS Admissions file for the fall 2023 entering class, the latest federal file, so a college's own page may show a newer number. The rate is first-year admits divided by first-year applicants for the whole campus. Rows are the 100 colleges with the most first-year applicants in that file, ordered from the lowest rate to the highest. Transfer applicants, graduate applicants, early-decision rates and per-major rates are not included.

This brief as data: /research/acceptance-rates-100-colleges.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).

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