Research · College admissions · October 2026

Which colleges get the most applications? The top 100 by applicant count

As of October 2026: The University of California-Los Angeles receives more first-year applications than any other college in the country, 145,903 for the fall 2023 entering class, followed by the University of California-San Diego at 130,771 and the University of California-Berkeley at 125,910. The colleges on this list drew 5,631,673 applications between them.

The table holds first-year applications and the acceptance rate for each college, and applications are not people: one student can sit in dozens of these pools.

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

University of California campuses hold the top four places. The University of California-Los Angeles drew 145,903 applications. San Diego drew 130,771, Berkeley 125,910 and Irvine 121,101. Santa Barbara is next at 110,871, then Davis at 94,637. One form reaches every UC campus, and that is a big part of why the pools run this large.

A huge pool does not mean a low acceptance rate. The University of California-Santa Barbara drew 110,871 applications and admitted 44.0 percent. Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus drew 85,956 and admitted 54.2 percent. The University of California-Merced drew 67,891 and admitted 94.7 percent. Northeastern University drew fewer, 96,631, and admitted 5.6 percent.

Private colleges fill the middle of the list, not the top of it. New York University is the highest private college at 113,578 applications. Northeastern University follows at 96,631. The University of Southern California is at 80,808. Harvard University, at 56,937, sits below a long run of state universities. One of them is Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus, at 85,956.

The colleges that receive the most applications

Ordered by the number of first-year applications the college received.

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

First-year applications for the fall 2023 entering class, the latest federal file, so a college's own page may show a newer number. Transfer and graduate applications are not counted. The same student can appear in many of these pools, so the counts describe applications, not students.

Why these pools got so big

Two things drive the size. The first is one form that reaches many campuses. The University of California form covers every UC campus. The Common App covers hundreds of colleges with one set of essays. Adding a campus is a checkbox, not a new project.

The second is that students apply to more colleges than they once did. Every extra college a student adds is one more application in somebody's pool. So the pools keep growing even in years when the number of seniors does not.

What the number is not

An application is not a student. The same senior can sit in many of these pools, so the totals cannot be added up to count people.

A big pool is also not a verdict on quality or on difficulty. The rate column moves almost on its own. Some of the largest pools here admit most applicants. Some smaller pools admit very few. Read the two columns together or you will read the wrong thing.

What a family should do with this

Read the two columns side by side for every college on your kid's list. The count tells you how crowded the pool is. The rate tells you what share got in. A crowded pool with a high rate is a fine place to apply, and the crowd alone is no reason to skip it.

If the list leans on one system, one form covers every campus in it. Adding a campus costs little and spreads the odds across more answers. If the list leans on low-rate private colleges, each one means its own essays and its own fee. The real limit is your kid's writing time.

Questions parents ask

Which college in the US gets the most applications?

The University of California-Los Angeles receives more first-year applications than any other college in the country, 145,903 for the fall 2023 entering class, followed by the University of California-San Diego at 130,771 and the University of California-Berkeley at 125,910.

Is a college with more applications harder to get into?

A huge pool does not mean a low acceptance rate.

Can I add these application counts together to count students?

An application is not a student. The same senior can sit in many of these pools, so the totals cannot be added up to count people.

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 count is first-year applications reported by the college; transfer and graduate applications are excluded, and so are colleges that report no admissions data. Rows are the 100 colleges with the most first-year applicants in that file, ordered by applicant count. One student's applications appear in several rows, so the counts measure applications rather than people.

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

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Related: Acceptance rates at the 100 most-applied-to colleges · Application fees at the 100 most-applied-to colleges · SAT and ACT score ranges at the same 100 colleges