For the Class of 2024, all but one Ivy League school that has thus far reported total application figures (Columbia University and Cornell University have yet to release this data), received fewer applications and had higher acceptance rates than for the Class of 2023. So which school proved to be the one exception? That would be Princeton University. In all, Princeton received 32,836 applications to its Class of 2024. This same figure stood at 32,804 for the Class of 2023. Princeton’s overall admission rate for the Class of 2024 also dropped to 5.55%. The school’s overall admission rate for the Class of 2023 stood at 5.77%. We so often write at the conclusion of each admission cycle how applications were up and admit rates were down at just about every Ivy League school. But not this year at most of our nation’s elite universities. Princeton, however, bucked this trend. So just who earned admission to Princeton University’s Class of 2024?

Breakdown of Admits to Princeton’s Class of 2024

As Marissa Michaels reports for The Daily Princetonian in a piece entitled “U. accepts 5.55 percent of applicants for Class of 2024,” “Seventeen percent of accepted students are first-generation college students. Sixty-one percent of students who are U.S. citizens or permanent residents are students of color, up from 56 percent last year. Over 20 percent of the admitted students come from low-income backgrounds, and the University predicts that about 60 percent of the Class of 2024 will receive financial aid, on par with the Class of 2023. Ten percent of admitted students are children of Princeton alumni, the lowest percentage since the Class of 2019. Sixty-three percent come from public high schools, the same percentage as that of students admitted to the Class of 2023. Admitted students come from 48 states, as well as Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico; international admits hail from 64 different countries. Fifty-one percent of admitted students identify as women and 49 percent as men. Eleven percent of admitted students indicated that they were undecided about concentrations, while 15 percent showed an interest in humanities. Nearly 24 percent are interested in engineering.”

Congratulations to all students who earned admission to Princeton University this Regular Decision cycle, joining the 791 students who earned admission during the Single Choice Early Action round! And congratulations to Princeton’s admissions office for defying the odds by increasing their application pool and lowering their admit rate from last year. It’s as though they pulled a bunny out of a hat!