2026 Ivy League Admissions Statistics

Ivy League Colleges	Overall Accept. Rate	Regular Decision Accept. Rate	Regular Decision Apps Accepted	Regular Decision Apps Received	Early Decision / Action Accept. Rate	% of Class Filled by Early Apps	Early Decision / Action Apps Rcvd	Early Decision / Action Apps Accepted	Expected Number of Students to Enroll	Total Apps Received	Total Apps Accepted
Brown	5.0%	3.6%	1,651	44,503	14.6%	52.7%	6,146	896	1,700	50,649	2,547
Columbia	3.73%	2.96%	1,603	54,072	10.31%	43.6%	6,305	650	1,492	60,377	2,253
Cornell	6.91%	4.99%	3,077	61,609	19.18%	51.82%	9,555	1,831	3,533	71,064	4,908
Dartmouth	6.24%	4.7%	1,207	25,703	21.27%	48.7%	2,633	560	1,150	28,336	1,767
Harvard	3.19%	2.34%	1,214	51,814	7.87%	n/a*	9,406	740	1,665	61,220	1,954
Penn	5.87%	NYP	NYP	NYP	15.63%	50.75%	7,795	1,218	2,400	56,332	3,304
Princeton	4.38%	NYP	NYP	NYP	NYP	NYP	NYP	NYP	1,433	NYP	NYP
Yale	4.47%	3.17%	1,353	42,727	12.09%	n/a*	7,288	881	1,554	50,015	2,234

n/a* = not applicable since an EA policy was in place
NYP = not yet published

Among the Ivy League institutions, applications spiked for the Class of 2026 at Harvard University, Yale University, and Brown University, while applications dipped slightly at Dartmouth College (though the College on the Hill boasted the same record-low admission rate as last year) along with the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University. The acceptance rates at Harvard, Yale, Brown, and Columbia also dropped to historic lows. Meanwhile, Princeton University and Cornell University have yet to release their admissions figures for the Class of 2026, though we’ll post the numbers soon enough when they become publicly available through the Common Data Set.

Last year, for the Class of 2025, as our readers may recall, we wrote of the sobering admissions figures — with our nation’s elite universities experiencing application surges like never before. At some elite universities, applications rose by margins of up to 66%. This year, for the Class of 2026, while many elite universities set new application benchmarks, most only beat last year’s figures by relatively smaller margins — not by the kind of historic margins of last year. Additionally, for those who believe that it was harder to get into elite colleges this year because the admission rates were slightly down and applications were slightly up at many of them, think again. Last year, due to all of the students admitted to the Class of 2025 who opted to take gap years on account of the pandemic, there were about 20% fewer seats available at many top universities. That simply wasn’t the case this year. So, yes, it was — without question — easier to earn admission to these schools for the Class of 2026 than it was for the Class of 2025. Yes, no matter how loudly or how vociferously a parent of an applicant to the Class of 2026 tells you it was the hardest year ever, it most certainly was not. Let’s have a look at the statistics for each of eight Ivy League universities for the Class of 2026.

Brown University

It was a banner year for Brown’s admissions office with previous benchmarks tumbling in unison. In the Early Decision round at Brown University, 896 students from a record pool of 6,146 applicants to the Class of 2026 earned admission. This marks a 14.6% Early Decision admission rate for Brown’s Class of 2026 — a historic low for the Ivy League institution based in Providence, Rhode Island. This new standard comes on the heels of Brown’s admissions office setting the benchmark last year with a 15.9% Early Decision admission rate for the Class of 2025. In fact, it marked the fourth consecutive year in which Brown’s Early Decision admission rate dropped to a historic low. Of the Early Decision applicants to Brown’s Class of 2026 who did not earn admission in mid-December, about 25% were deferred and 60% were denied admission. Last year, about 30% of Early Decision candidates to Brown were deferred.

In the Regular Decision round, 1,651 students earned admission — joining the 896 students who earned admission through Early Decision back in December. This brings the total number of admits to Brown’s Class of 2026 to 2,546 students. In all, between the two rounds of admission, 50,649 students applied to the institution — a surge of over 4,000 applicants and a 9% increase from just last year. By our arithmetic, this mean that Brown received 44,503 Regular Decision applications to the Class of 2026. Last year, that same figure stood at 41,028 for the Class of 2025. And if our long division is correct, it means Brown’s Regular Decision admit rate for the Class of 2026 stood at 3.7%, slightly higher than last year’s historically low 3.5% RD admission rate but good enough for the second lowest RD admission rate in the school’s history.

Highlights of Brown University’s Class of 2026

In the Early Decision round, admits to the Brown Class of 2026 hail from 43 states (not such great geographic diversity since America’s elite schools are always aiming to admit students from all 50 states in the Early round as well as the Regular Decision round!) in addition to Washington, D.C., Guam, and Puerto Rico. International admits hail from 47 nations around our globe with the most representation from China, the United Kingdom, Singapore, India, Canada, and Brazil. 54 students were admitted through QuestBridge, a program for low-income and first-generation college students — an increase of 9 students from this time last year when 45 earned admission. Additionally, 23 students earned admission to Brown’s Program in Liberal Medical Education, a program that boasted a 3% admission rate this year. And among the intended majors for Brown’s Early Decision admits to the Class of 2026, economics, biology, computer science, engineering, and political science were among the most popular, respectively.

Between the Early Decision and Regular Decision rounds of admission for Brown’s Class of 2026, admits hail from all 50 states in our union. The most represented nations among admits, outside of the United States, include China, the United Kingdom, India, Singapore, Canada, and — you guessed it — Ukraine. Brown commendably made a special effort this year to admit students from both war-torn Ukraine as well as Afghanistan, even offering many of these young people early notice of their acceptances so they could plan ahead as much as possible. Overall, 96% of admits are in the top 10% of their graduating high school classes. Their top intended majors?: engineering/biomedical engineering, computer science, economics, political science, biology, biochemistry and molecular biology, international and public affairs, neuroscience, applied mathematics, public health, psychology, health and human biology, physics, English, and history. Brown’s admissions office anticipates a class size of about 1,700 students — between Early Decision admits and Regular Decision candidates who choose to matriculate to the university.

Columbia University

In the Early Decision round, Columbia University received 6,305 applications for its Class of 2026. It marked a slight decrease from its Class of 2025 Early Decision pool. Last year, 6,435 students made binding commitments to attend the Manhattan-based institution by applying Early Decision. Of these students, 650 earned admission for an ED admit rate of 10.1%. And while the number of Early Decision candidates who earned admission to Columbia’s Class of 2026 has yet to be released, we do know that admits hail from all 50 states in our union. We’ll be sure to update this post when the data becomes available from the historically tight-lipped Columbia admissions office.

Between the Early Decision and Regular Decision rounds of admission, Columbia offered 2,253 students admission to its Class of 2026. So taking into account the 650 ED admits, an additional 1,603 students earned admission in Regular Decision to Columbia. Overall, between the two rounds of admission and a grand total of 60,377 applications to both Columbia College and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the Ivy League school’s admission rate stood at a record low 3.73% — besting last year’s 3.9% overall admission rate after applications to Columbia’s Class of 2025 spiked 51% — to 60,551 — from the prior year to blow out of the water the previous record application tally (42,569 for the Columbia Class of 2023) by nearly 18,000 applications.

Highlights of Columbia University’s Class of 2026

We’ll release demographic details about the Columbia University Class of 2026 when the information becomes publicly available. As Ivy Coach’s loyal readers know all too well, Columbia is historically the last Ivy League university to share such details each year.

Read more information about the Early Decision admits to the Columbia Class of 2026 as well as the overall admits to the Columbia Class of 2026.

Cornell University

Cornell University, like last year, has not yet released its Early Decision admissions statistics for the Class of 2026. But the data is out for the total applicant pool — a pool that includes both the Early Decision and Regular Decision rounds of admission. In all, 4,908 students earned admission to the Ithaca, New York-based institution — significantly fewer than the 5,836 students who earned admission last year, a record-setting year more significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic than this year. We’d share the overall Cornell Class of 2026 admission rate as well as the overall application tally but Cornell has opted to not yet release this data. But fear not: we’ll have the data from the cagey Ivy League institution to share with our readers in short order since it eventually becomes publicly available.

Highlights of Cornell University’s Class of 2026

Admits to the Cornell University Class of 2026 hail from all 50 nifty united states from 13 original colonies (shout ’em, scout ’em, tell all about ’em…) in addition to Washington, D.C., Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico. Shout ’em, scout ’em, tell all about ’em…you get the idea. International admits to the Cornell Class of 2026 hail from 85 nations around our globe. In addition, 19.9% of admits will be the first in their immediate families to attend college and 57.7% of admits self-identify as students of color, a figure that includes Asian American students since the figure does not specifically cite underrepresented minorities (last year, 34.2% of admits self-identified as underrepresented minorities, a figure that does not include Asian Americans).

Read more about Cornell’s Class of 2026.

Dartmouth College

In the Early Decision round, 2,633 students applied to the Dartmouth College Class of 2026 — down only slightly from last year’s historic high of 2,644 ED applications. Of this year’s Early Decision candidates, 530 earned admission to the College on the Hill (in addition to 30 students from low-income and/or underrepresented minority backgrounds who matched with Dartmouth through QuestBridge). This marks an Early Decision admission rate of approximately 20.1%, the lowest in the university’s long history since, despite the slightly smaller applicant pool after last year’s 33% spike in applications, significantly more students — 591 in total — got in Early Decision to the Dartmouth Class of 2025. Last year, the ED admit rate to Dartmouth stood at a then-record low 21.2%.

In the Regular Decision round, 1,207 students earned admission to the College on the Hill. These 1,207 students, combined with the 530 students who earned admission to the Dartmouth Class of 2026 via Early Decision along with 30 QuestBridge matched students back in December, contribute to an overall tally of 1,767 admitted students to this year’s class. With a total applicant pool of 28,336 applicants — only 21 fewer than for the record-setting tally for the Dartmouth Class of 2025 (so close!) — the overall admission rate for the Class of 2026 stood at 6.24% (matching last year’s historic low overall admission rate of 6.2%).

Highlights of Dartmouth College’s Class of 2026

In the Early Decision round, 57% of admits hail from the South, the West, or abroad. The most represented states among ED admits include California, Texas, Florida, New York, Massachusetts, and Connecticut. Meanwhile, the most represented nations outside of the U.S. include the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and China. 54% of admits — a new benchmark — attend public or charter high schools. 93% of ED admits are in the top 10% of their high school classes while it’s anticipated that 22% are expected to graduate as valedictorian or salutatorian at their respective high schools. Early Decision admits filled 46% of seats for the Dartmouth Class of 2026.

In total, 1,125 students joined the Dartmouth Class of 2026. 557 self-identify as men, 547 as women, and 21 as genderqueer/non-binary/questioning. Of those admits hailing from high schools that rank students, 95% hail from the top decline. For those students who submitted SAT scores, the mean stood at 733 while the median stood 750. For those students who submitted ACT scores, the mean stood at 33. 10% of admits are Dartmouth legacies, 16% are first-generation college students, and 45% of American admits are students of color (11% African American, 22% Asian American, 11% Latino, 4% Native American, 17% two or more races/ethnicities reported). 56% of students will receive some form of financial aid from Dartmouth. Additionally, 17% of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents qualify for Pell Grants.

Harvard University

92.1%. That’s the percentage of Early Action applicants to the Harvard Class of 2026 whose admission was either deferred or denied. It doesn’t take a degree in mathematics from Harvard to know this means the Early Action admission rate for Harvard’s incoming class stood at 7.9%, the second lowest in the university’s history (last year, for the Class of 2025, 7.4% of Early Action applicants earned admission). In all, 740 of the 9,406 Early Action applicants to Harvard’s Class of 2026 got in after the Early round. The total Early Action pool, as compared to the Class of 2025, was 6.7% smaller as it contained 681 fewer applications.

96.81%. That’s the percentage of overall applicants to the Harvard Class of 2026, between the two rounds of admission, who earned admission. By our arithmetic, this means that a mere 3.19% of applicants to Harvard’s Class of 2026 got in. It marked the lowest overall admission rate in the university’s storied history, besting last year’s 3.4% figure. And while the Early Action pool for the Class of 2026 was slightly smaller than for the Class of 2025, the Regular Decision pool was significantly larger. Overall, applications jumped by nearly 7% this year to 61,220 from last year’s then-record 57,435. In the RD round, 1,124 students earned admission, joining the 740 students who earned admission back in December.

Highlights of Harvard University’s Class of 2026

Among Early Action admits to Harvard’s Class of 2026, 13.9% identify as African American — down rather significantly from last year when 16.6% of Early Action admits to the Class of 2025 got into Harvard. Meanwhile, the percentage of admitted Latino students rose ever so slightly — to 10.5% from 10.4% the previous year. Native American and Native Hawaiian admits also rose quite significantly — from 1.3% last year to 3.7% this year (nearly triple!). And with the eyes of Lady Justice squarely watching Harvard’s admissions office, the percentage of EA Asian American admits rose from 23.4% last year to 25.9% this year (not so shocking, we know!). International students were also slightly up, year-over-year, from 12.2% to 12.6%. About 12% of EA admits will be the first in their families to attend college — down rather significantly from last year’s Early round when 16.7% of admits to the Class of 2025 identified as first-generation. So, in short, some demographics were up this year at Harvard in the Early round, while others were down. A veritable mixed bag.

Among overall admits to the Harvard Class of 2026, 20.3% will be the first in their families to attend college — a figure down ever so slightly from last year’s 20.7%. African American or Black students make up 15.5% of the overall admits, down rather significantly from 18% for the Class of 2025. Latino students comprise 12.6% of admits, down from 13.3% last year. Consistent with the rise in the Early Action round, overall Native American admits surged to 2.9% from 1.2% last year, while Native Hawaiians rose to 0.8% from 0.6% for the Class of 2025. Asian American admits also increased to 27.8% from 27.2% last year. 20.5% of this year’s admits are Pell Grant-eligible, representing the highest percentage of students ever admitted to Harvard who qualify for this necessary aid. Women make up the majority of admits — 54.2% in fact. This figure is up from 52.9% for the Class of 2025. And 18 veterans of America’s military earned admission to the Class of 2026 (this does not include transfer students), a figure that’s down slightly from last year’s 19. In addition 40 students admitted to the Harvard Class of 2026 expressed an interest in joining the ROTC.

University of Pennsylvania

At the University of Pennsylvania, 7,795 students applied through the school’s binding Early Decision program. Of these students, 1,218 earned admission in December, marking a 15.63% Early Decision admission rate for the UPenn Class of 2026. Last year, slightly more students applied ED to UPenn (7,962) and slightly fewer (1,194) earned admission. Last year’s ED admission rate of 14.9% for the UPenn Class of 2025 was thus slightly lower.

Overall, between the two rounds of admission, about 55,000 students applied to UPenn’s Class of 2026 — slightly below last year’s record of 56,333 applicants when applications surged by a margin of 25.07% from the Class of 2024. To put these figures in historical perspective, 42,205 students applied to UPenn’s Class of 2024 while 44,960 students applied to UPenn’s Class of 2023 (a then-record). And for the first time we can ever recall, UPenn declined to release the school’s overall acceptance rate, though we’ll be sure to publish it once it becomes publicly available through the United States Department of Education and the Common Data Set. It’s anticipated that UPenn’s Class of 2026 will consist of about 2,400 students.

Highlights of University of Pennsylvania’s Class of 2026

In the Early Decision round, admitted students hail from 42 of the 50 states in our union in addition to Washington, D.C., American Samoa, and Puerto Rico (last year, 43 states were represented). 60 nations around our globe are represented among the ED admits, up from 56 nations last year (12% of ED admits are international). 14% are first-generation college students. 53% identify as female (down from 54% last year). 52% of U.S. citizens or permanent residents self-identify as students of color (compared to 50% last year). Last year, 24% of UPenn’s ED admits chose not to submit test scores. This year, UPenn chose not to release this data but the school did stipulate that for those students who did submit test scores, 1500-1560 marked the middle 50% on the SAT and 34-35 marked the middle 50% on the ACT.

Among overall admits to the UPenn Class of 2026, Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule touts that it’s “the most diverse” in the university’s history, though until UPenn’s class data is released to the public, we have no way of verifying this statement. Apparently, UPenn also admitted the highest proportion of students from Philadelphia in the school’s long history. Additionally, about 40% of admits held jobs during high school, nearly a third conducted some sort of research, and about 80% engaged in some form of community service. Of course, we’ll release more demographic data on UPenn’s Class of 2026 when it becomes publicly available.

Princeton University

We’ve got very little to share about Princeton University’s Class of 2026 thus far. Coming off a year in which Princeton marched to the beat of its own drummer by opting to forgo its typical Early Action program due to the ongoing global pandemic, Early Action was back in place for applicants to the Princeton Class of 2026. And we’d share the number of Early Action as well as Regular Decision application figures in addition to the Early Action and Regular Decision admission rates, but they’re being withheld until they become publicly available through the Common Data Set. Oh Princeton! So cryptic this year.

Highlights of Princeton University’s Class of 2026

While Princeton’s admissions office has yet to release statistics on its Class of 2026, we’ve got some data, data drawn from those admits who completed a survey conducted by Princeton’s student newspaper, The Daily Princetonian. As The Daily Princetonian reports, “Respondents hail from 64 countries, 45 states, and three U.S. territories…New Jersey residents represent the greatest proportion of incoming domestic Princetonians (14.3 percent), a figure roughly comparable to the population of international students (17.6 percent). The largest contingent of new non-American Tigers hail from Great Britain (2.3 percent of total, 13 percent of internationals). And Asia is the most popular continent of origin for international students (6.7 percent of total, 38.3 percent of internationals).” About half of respondents to The Daily Princetonian survey identified as students of color. But, again, this data applies only to those admits who completed the survey. So we’ll be sure to update the information once the Princeton Class of 2026 profile becomes publicly available.

Read more about Princeton’s Class of 2026.

Yale University

800 students earned admission to Yale University’s Class of 2026 in the Early Action round in addition to 81 QuestBridge students who matched with the Ivy League institution. Admitted students were selected from an Early Action applicant pool of 7,288 students, the second largest EA pool in the university’s history — eclipsed only by last year when 7,939 students applied EA to the Yale Class of 2025. This marks an Early Action admit rate of approximately 10.98% for Yale’s Class of 2026. It’s the second lowest Early Action admission rate in the university’s history, eclipsed only by — you guessed it! — the Class of 2025.

Overall, between the Early Action and Regular Decision rounds of admission, 2,234 students earned admission to Yale’s Class of 2026 out of a record total of 50,015 applications. It’s a figure that includes the 800 students who earned admission via Early Action as well as the 81 students who matched with Yale via QuestBridge. In addition, 46 students who were admitted last year but opted to defer their enrollment will join the Yale Class of 2026. And while Yale’s Early Action pool for the Class of 2026 was somewhat smaller than last year’s pool, the Regular Decision pool was larger. It was in fact the largest Regular Decision pool — and overall pool — in the Ivy League school’s history. Last year, a record 46,935 students applied to Yale’s Class of 2025, a figure that eclipsed the previous record total by nearly 10,000 applications.

Yale’s overall admission rate for the Class of 2026 stood at approximately 4.47%, besting last year’s record low overall admission rate of 4.6%. So what a year it was for Yale’s admissions office! Total applications surged to a record level and the overall admission rate sunk to a new benchmark. Oh, and the reason Early applications may have been slightly down this year? That’s easily explainable. Princeton didn’t have an Early Action admissions round last year due to the pandemic so some of the students who otherwise would have applied to Princeton’s Class of 2025 EA instead applied to Yale’s Class of 2025 EA. Seems logical, right?

Highlights of Yale University’s Class of 2026

Admitted students to Yale’s Class of 2026 hail from 49 states (they’d have likely taken an applicant with a pulse in the fiftieth state if they could!) in addition to Washington, D.C. Guam, and Puerto Rico. International applicants hail from 58 nations around the world. Admits hail from over 1,500 high schools and their intended majors run the gamut across 81 of Yale’s disciplines. To put these figures in perspective, last year, admits to Yale’s Class of 2025 hailed from all 50 states in addition to Washington, D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. International admits hailed from 72 nations around the globe as well as from 1,600 secondary schools. They indicated an interest in 79 majors at Yale. So states represented were slightly down this year, countries and high schools represented were down rather significantly, and intended majors were up slightly. We’ll share more demographic details on Yale’s Class of 2026 as the data becomes available.