Vanderbilt University has released Early Decision II notifications for the Class of 2026. Approximately 250 students earned admission through the school’s second binding decision program, drawn from a pool of 2,407 ED II applicants. In total, between Early Decision I and Early Decision II, approximately 900 students earned admission to Vandy from a pool of 5,107 Early Decision applicants. By our arithmetic, this marks an overall Early Decision admission rate of 17.6% (24.1% in ED I and 10.3% in ED II — so, yes, applying ED I offers an applicant a significant advantage over applying ED II as we’ve discussed many times on the pages of this college admissions blog).

Wondering how these numbers stack up against prior Early Decision cycles at Vanderbilt? As Rachael Perrotta reports for Vanderbilt Hustler in a piece entitled “10.3% of early decision II applicants accepted to Class of 2026,” “The ED acceptance rate for the Class of 2026 reflects a 0.5% decrease from that of the Class of 2025 and 3.1% from that of the Class of 2024. Per [Dean of Admissions Doug] Christiansen, this downward trend in acceptance rates can be attributed to how the university has steadily received an increasing number of ED applications each year. Christiansen said ED applications have increased by 40% in the past five years and by 78% in the past 10 years.”

Congratulations to all of our students at Ivy Coach who applied Early Decision to Vanderbilt’s Class of 2026. You all got in and we’re so proud of you!