Ivy League Acceptance Rates and Admissions Statistics | Ivy Coach (2023)

FAQs

Which Ivy League school has the highest early decision acceptance rate? ›

Cornell University is the Ivy League school that receives the most applications each year, and it's not surprising since they also have the highest acceptance rate. They received 67,380 applications for their class of 2025.

Cornell is considered the "easiest" Ivy League to get into because it has the highest Ivy League acceptance rate. While it's easier, statistically speaking, to get into Cornell, it's still challenging. It's also important to remember that students apply directly to one of Cornell's eight undergraduate colleges.

The Ivy League school is the lowest acceptance rate is Harvard. With an average acceptance rate of around 3% (based on numbers over the last ten years), Harvard is the hardest Ivy League to get into.

Dartmouth University

The second most accessible Ivy League school to get into is Dartmouth, established in 1769 and based in Hanover, New Hampshire. Dartmouth admitted 1,876 applicants out of 23,650, the lowest number among the eight Ivy League schools, for an acceptable percentage of 7.9%.

Yes, you can get into an Ivy League with a 3.7 GPA. Though, the lower your grade, the less your chances of getting into an Ivy League, but with a strong personal statement and a properly packaged application, you can get in with a grade even less than 3.7 GPA.

The Ivy League with the best campus is Princeton. It's reputed as having the prettiest campus. But beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.

Yale is ranked as the fifth hardest school to get into in the country, falling behind Harvard University, Stanford University, Princeton University and the California Institute of Technology.

Just one bad grade in an advanced level course is not going to ruin your chances at an Ivy League. However, consistently underperforming in advanced classes in your area-of-interest classes will penalize you in the applications process.

What is the hardest non Ivy League school to get into? ›

Claremont McKenna College

Claremont McKenna College, in Claremont, California, has a 13% acceptance rate.

Columbia University

The Ivy League schools, as would be expected, have excellent dorm life options. Columbia, an Ivy League school with an outstanding history and reputation, carries inclusion and diversity from the classroom to the larger Columbia community.

However, for college applicants, the average GPA is more likely between 3.5 and 4.0. If you're aiming for a top university such as one in the Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, or others of the same caliber, a 4.0 GPA — or close to it — is expected.

You should also have a 4.18 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score. For a school as selective as Harvard, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.

Continue to work hard, take difficult classes, and show your passions outside of school! To get to Harvard your GPA has to be at least a 4.0 and even then if you get in your lucky but they require at least a 4.18 GPA only .

The eight worst Ivy League institutions are, in arbitrary order, Penn, Princeton, Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and Brown. Ordering this list is quite subjective, but these are definitively the 8 worst.

The Ivy League universities vary in size, with each institution enrolling between 4,500 and 15,500 undergraduates. Dartmouth is the smallest Ivy, with a total enrollment of about 7,000 students. Meanwhile, Columbia and Harvard enroll the most students of any Ivy, with over 30,000 undergraduate and graduate students.

What Is a Good SAT Score For the Ivy League? Using the numbers from the above chart, here's an example of how you would calculate a good SAT score for the Ivy League. Say you want to apply to Harvard, Yale, and UPenn. Harvard's middle 50% range is 1480-1580, Yale's is 1450-1560, and UPenn's is 1510-1560.

(Most schools use a weighted GPA out of 4.0, though some report an unweighted GPA. With a GPA of 4.18, Harvard requires you to be at the top of your class. You'll need nearly straight A's in all your classes to compete with other applicants.

GPA Requirements

Yale University does not have a strict minimum GPA requirement for undergraduate admissions. However, admitted students typically have very high GPAs, ranging from 3.8 to 4.0, with an average GPA of 3.9.

Is a 32 ACT good enough for Ivy League? ›

98th percentile: A 32 ACT score is above the national average. This score is excellent for most Ivy League universities. So if you are wondering, 'is 32 a good ACT score' to get into any of the highly selective Ivy League colleges, you should know that this score is sufficient to stand out among your competitors.

New data confirms what you've probably already guessed: Princeton is the whitest Ivy in the League. According to stats retrieved from College Scorecard, 47 percent of Princeton's students are white, more than any other top college in the States.

Among the very best universities in the world, Yale University is the one that statistically offers the most generous financial aid. The following statistics from Yale Office of Undergraduate Financial Aid demonstrate the financial aid that first-year students in the Class of 2023 received on average.

Brown is ranked by the Princeton Review as the 10th happiest campus in the country and the happiest school in the Ivy League, and has a general reputation for being the “Happy Ivy.” But why does Brown have this reputation?

Campus happiness: Brown is widely known as the happiest Ivy, perhaps because of students' freedom to choose courses with almost complete autonomy. Students report feeling less competition amongst themselves and an overall sense of campus community.

Yale students mention happiness more than their Harvard peers, but they all agree that these Ivy League universities shaped their lives, and gave them the best possible start in their careers – as well as an amazing network of friends and colleagues to take with them into the future.

In almost all the major ranking factors, Harvard has the upper hand except for the faculty/student ratio. Here, Yale is ranked at 4th while Harvard is at 40th. This aside, Harvard ranks first in academics and graduate employers while Yale is at ninth.

All Ivy League institutions maintain acceptance rates of under 10%, making them among the most competitive universities in the nation. Within that cohort, Princeton and Cornell are at opposite ends of the spectrum. Princeton is the third most competitive school in the Ivy League, while Cornell is the least competitive.

An Ivy League school might accept a student who had all As and one or two Bs in the highest-level classes, but it probably wouldn't accept a student who had flawless grades in all mid- or low-level classes. These schools are looking for students who are up for an intellectual challenge and genuinely enjoy learning.

Will one b ruin my chances at an Ivy League? ›

No! If you do not have a perfect GPA, that does not automatically mean you will get rejected from your dream school, especially if you earned a lower grade in a particularly challenging course. Colleges want to see your work ethic and ability to challenge yourself. One A- or B will not ruin your chances of acceptance.

Going into high school, many students hear that freshman year is the “easiest” year. Some think that colleges don't consider it as much as they do one's sophomore, junior, and senior years. While this is typically true, it doesn't mean that students should entirely dismiss the importance of their freshman year.

So how much is good enough? Average GPAs at Ivy League schools start at 3.9. Any lower than 3.5, however, you'll have to either have an impressive, relevant achievement or pray for a miracle to get an offer.

Niche, a ranking and review site, recently published its list of the “2023 Hardest Colleges to Get Into.” Using data from the U.S. Department of Education on various colleges' acceptance rates and SAT/ACT scores, they found, unsurprisingly, Harvard University to be the most difficult college to get into.

In our distinctions, "elite" refers to the approximately 75 schools with the most restrictive admissions criteria. These colleges generally accept fewer than 30 percent of all applicants and have a highly selective reputation to match.

Princeton is one of two Ivy League colleges on our list (the other being Dartmouth). As much as it values its academic rigor, it also clearly values the safety of its students.

UPenn: Commonly called 'The Social Ivy'. Students from here often attend its top business school, and are active in Greek Life. Many reports suggest students from here have a rich social life, love to party and still achieve excellent grades while they do so.

But where can you find the best college dorms in America? The Princeton Review recently released its 2022 ranking of the best college dorms, based on student ratings of their dorms and residence halls. Taking the top spot is Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.

One B will not hurt your chances, especially because it was in a rigorous AP class. Your B will hardly make a dent in your GPA, and assuming that will be your only B by graduation, your GPA will be in the high 90th percentile even at the most competitive schools.

The average high school GPA for admitted students at Harvard University is 4.18 on a 4.0 scale. (You can calculate your high school a GPA here.) This is a very competitive GPA, and Harvard University is clearly accepting students at the top of their high school class.

Can you get a 5.0 GPA? ›

Students in an AP class with weighted grading receive a five-point weighted average for each of the four-letter grades: As, Bs, Cs, and Ds. As a result, a student who only takes AP classes and receives A's will have a 5.0 GPA.

Aim high. Even though there are no official MIT GPA requirements, you should aim for a 4.17 weighted GPA. If you're already a junior or senior figuring out how to get into MIT and your GPA is lower than 4.17, know that scores close to the average MIT SAT scores or ACT scores can counterbalance a lower GPA.

GPA. There is no minimum required GPA, but competitive applicants generally have a GPA of 3.5 or above, and mostly A's in mathematics and science courses. Testing must be completed by the October test date for spring (February) entry and by the March test date for fall (September) entry.

Selection decisions (both on-campus and at the national level) are based on the following criteria: Academic record: Students should have a GPA of 3.5 or higher, and should have excellent analytic and communication skills.

Meet Blinkist, a Berlin-based, award-winning startup that improves millions of people's lives on a daily basis. In 2018, thousands of people applied for a job at Blinkist. 1,600 candidates were interviewed, 73 of whom were hired. Blinkist's acceptance rate was 4.6%, and Harvard's acceptance rate—5.2%.

You should also have a 4.14 GPA or higher. If your GPA is lower than this, you need to compensate with a higher SAT/ACT score. For a school as selective as Yale, you'll also need to impress them with the rest of your application. We'll cover those details next.

UCLA requires a minimum 3.0 GPA

It is not enough to simply fill out a UCLA application. Because UCLA is part of the rigorous UC system, the UCLA GPA requirements are dictated by the whole UC system. In order to get into any UC school, students must earn at least a 3.0 GPA and may not have any grades below a “C”.

Does Applying Early Decision or Early Action Increase Your Chances? You don't need to score an 800 on the Math section of the SAT to understand that students who apply for early decision are accepted to Ivy League schools at a higher rate than regular-decision applicants—simply look at the scores in the table below.

Early Decision The College Board-approved Early Decision Plan, which is offered by Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, and the University of Pennsylvania, requires a prior commitment to matriculate.

Is Harvard early decision worth it? ›

Does early action give people an unfair advantage? The short answer is no. In and of itself, early action is not an advantage. While it is clear that, proportionally, more applicants were admitted in the early action round, those who apply early action have been preparing for years to get accepted to Harvard.

Admission rates for early decision programs are somewhat higher than early action and regular decision programs. By applying early decision, your child will be demonstrating much-appreciated serious interest to their top-choice college.

Colleges like to see early applicants, and the statistics show it. Both early decision and early action applicants are accepted at a higher rate than their standard deadline counterparts. Of course, applying early also has several other benefits for applicants.

How Many Extracurricular Activities Do Ivy Leagues Want? For most students, two or three extracurricular activities is manageable while balancing a full course load, depending on the commitment involved in each.

Of both the private institutions, getting admissions with Columbia University is rather easy as compared to Yale University. The acceptance rate of Columbia is higher than Yale's. As well as the score requirement for GMAT, SAT, and ACT is lower for Columbia University.

Essentially, these letters are used to give these top tier applicants a “heads up” or sorts that they will likely be admitted to the school before the official decision notifications go out in March and April.

Applying early can be a good idea if you're sure about which college you want to attend. That means you've researched its programs and, if possible, visited its campus. But think twice about applying early if: You want to compare admission and financial aid offers from several colleges.

The eight Ivies—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, Princeton, and Yale—typically release their decisions at the same exact time as well. This time varies every year but tends to be either 5 pm or 7 pm ET. Top schools that are not in the Ivy League typically have different decision release dates.