With overall acceptance rates below 10%, these 24 uber elite colleges are incredibly tough to gain admission to when you apply Regular Decision. These 24 colleges include all eight of the Ivy League colleges, Stanford, MIT, and CalTech plus thirteen more colleges, seven of which are liberal arts colleges.

The main drivers for the near impossible odds of admission at the Regular Decision phase of the application cycle are:

• the huge number of applicants to these colleges during Regular Decision, numbers that were further inflated with the introduction of test optionality in Fall 2020,

• the substantially reduced number of seats available by the time Regular Decision rolls around. 40% or more of the available seats for the class are already committed to Early Decision acceptances, leaving the huge pool of applicants at Regular Decision to scramble for the remaining seats.

The Regular Decision acceptance rates at these 24 colleges are even lower than the overall acceptance rates announced by the colleges. Prudent applicants planning to apply Regular Decision to these colleges should place them squarely in the “stretch” school column, and applicants should maintain very low expectations of gaining admission.

On the other hand, the acceptance rates for applications made through Early Decision, Restrictive Early Action or Early Action have been multiples of the acceptance rates for Regular Decision at these 24 colleges. The acceptance data in the table for the class of 2025 makes this very clear.

Table of Colleges with Acceptance Rates Below 10% - Class of 2025

Data obtained from the Common Data Sets

Read:

Academic Statistics that Matter at the Top Colleges

Do Test Scores Improve your Chances of Admission

The Early Decision Advantage

A total of 18 out of the 24 colleges with single digit overall acceptance rates offer Early Decision. At the colleges that disclosed complete data, Early Decision acceptance rates were generally three to four times those of Regular Decision acceptance rates.

Barnard College accepted 34% of its Early Decision applicants, but only 6% of its Regular Decision applicants, favoring Early Decision applicants by a multiple of 5.6 times. At Barnard, a whopping 62% of the class of 2025 was accepted through Early Decision leaving very little room for those who applied Regular Decision subsequently.

Williams College accepted 33% of its Early Decision applicants, but only 7% of its Regular Decision applicants, favoring Early Decision applicants by a multiple of 4.7 times. A substantial 41% of the class of 2025 at Williams was accepted Early Decision.

Northwestern University accepted 25% of its Early Decision applicants, but only 5% of its Regular Decision applicants, favoring Early Decision applicants by a multiple of 5 times. A majority of 52% of its class of 2025 was accepted through Early Decision.

At the Ivy League colleges, Early Decision applicants were accepted at rates that were between 2 and 4 times that of Regular Decision applicants.

Brown accepted 16% of its Early Decision applicants, but only 4% of its Regular Decision applicants. Columbia accepted 10% of its Early Decision applicants, but only 3% of its Regular Decision applicants.

Cornell and Dartmouth each accepted 21% of their Early Decision applicants, but only 7% of Regular Decision applicants at Cornell and 5% of Regular Decision applicants at Dartmouth. At UPenn, 15% of Early Decision applicants were accepted compared to 4% of Regular Decision applicants.

At Amherst, Bowdoin, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Swarthmore College and Vanderbilt, Early Decision acceptance rates were generally more than 3 times those of Regular Decision acceptance rates. Only at Pomona College and Rice University were Early Decision acceptance rates less than 3 times Regular Decision acceptance rates.

Restricted Early Action Advantage

While the acceptance advantage does not appear to be as great with Restricted Early Action (REA), it still offers a much higher acceptance rate compared to Regular Decision applications.

For applicants to the class of 2025, Harvard and Yale offered Restrictive Early Action (REA) to applicants instead of Early Decision. Unlike Early Decision acceptances which are binding on accepted applicants, REA acceptances are non-binding. REA applicants can continue to shop for the best financial aid package possible by applying to other colleges during Regular Decision. REA acceptances at Harvard (7%) and Yale (11%) were 2.33 times and 2.75 times the acceptances issued to Regular Decision applicants (3% and 4% respectively) for the class of 2025.

Princeton was the only Ivy League college that did not offer an “Early” application option for the class of 2025; its Regular Decision acceptance rate was 4%. Princeton has since reinstated its REA program for the class of 2027.

Stanford University offered REA to the class of 2025 but did not disclose the acceptance rate. Its overall acceptance rate was disclosed as a low 4%.

MIT offered unrestricted Early Action application to the class of 2025, and in common with all unrestricted Early Action programs, there was negligible difference in acceptance rates between Early Action (5%) and Regular Decision (4%) at MIT.

CalTech also offered unrestricted Early Action to the class of 2025 but did not disclose the acceptance rate. CalTech’s overall acceptance rate was also a low 4%. CalTech has announced that starting in Fall 2022, it will institute an REA program in place of unrestricted Early Action.

Note: REA programs come with restrictions. While there are small variations in REA restrictions between the colleges offering REA, generally an REA applicant may apply early to public and foreign universities under non-binding programs (EA), but that applicant cannot apply to any private college under a binding (ED) program or non-binding one (EA) until an REA decision has been issued. Once an REA decision has been made, an applicant is free to apply second round ED, if available, and of course they can apply in the RD rounds.

Should you apply “Early” ?

There are pros and cons to applying “early” whether its Early Decision or Early Action, and we have discussed these issues extensively in How to make smart use of Early Decision and Early Action.

While the acceptance rates at these elite colleges for “Early” applications are still quite low relative to acceptance rates at the less selective colleges, applying “Early” is still one of the best ways for you to raise your chances of admission to an elite college.

If you have no financial constraints, and will be fully ready to submit your application by November 1, then an “Early” application that gives you a better chance of admission to your “dream” school should be an automatic choice.

For many applicants, the need to secure the best possible financial aid and scholarship package poses the biggest barrier to applying Early Decision.

An Early Decision acceptance is legally binding, which closes off all other college options once accepted. Should the financial aid package offered by the college turn out to be insufficient, the applicant has only unappealing options to mitigate their problem.

However, before you write off applying Early Decision because of your financial needs, make sure you do your homework on what these elite colleges offer in financial aid. While the Ivy League colleges do not provide academic or athletic scholarships, they do provide very generous financial aid packages to those with demonstrated financial need.

Several of the Ivy League colleges, including Columbia, Harvard, Yale, Dartmouth and Princeton do not require any parent contribution when family income falls below $65,000 annually. Cornell does not require parent contribution when family income falls below $60,000 annually.

MIT also provides very generous scholarship packages to students with family income and assets of $140,000 or less.

Read: Are the colleges on my list affordable?

Restricted Early Action (REA) is a much better option to pursue if the size of the financial aid package is of material importance to you. Since an REA acceptance is non-binding, you can still pursue other options through the Regular Decision cycle before you make a choice on which college to attend based on the financial aid and scholarship packages offered to you.

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