Ivy League Acceptance Rates: A Complete Guide

Admission to the Ivy League is among the most competitive processes in global higher education. Each year, hundreds of thousands of highly qualified students apply for a very limited number of places across the eight Ivy League universities, resulting in acceptance rates that are consistently below 10% – and often below 5%.

In this guide, we break down the latest Ivy League acceptance rate data in detail. We compare universities, examine how acceptance rates vary between Early and Regular Decision, and explore what makes acceptance rates so slow. Finally, we outline clear, evidence-based strategies students can use to strengthen their chances of success.

Ivy League Acceptance Rates

University	Applicants	Offers	Acceptance Rate
Brown	48898	2521	5.2%
Columbia	60248	2327	3.9%
Cornell	72519	6076	8.4%
Dartmouth	31656	1710	5.4%
Harvard	54008	1937	3.6%
Penn	65235	3508	5.4%
Princeton	40468	1868	4.6%
Yale	57465	2146	3.7%
Average			5.0%

As we can see, the acceptance rate at all Ivy League colleges is exceptionally low – between 3.6% and 8.4% depending on the college, with an overall average Ivy League acceptance rate of 5.0%.

Only around 1 in 20 students who apply to the Ivies are offered a place – and when you  bear in mind that the average quality of Ivy League applicant is already very high, this underscores how difficult it is to get a place.

In the following sections, we’ll break down the admissions statistics in a bit more detail to see what lies under these headline numbers.

Ivy League with highest acceptance rate

Cornell is the Ivy League school with the highest acceptance rate at 8.4%, with Dartmouth and Penn next at 5.4% (Dartmouth is fractionally higher at 5.42% vs Penn’s 5.38%).

Cornell’s comparatively high acceptance rate is a function of a couple of factors:

1. It has easily the largest freshman body of any Ivy, with approximately 3200 students joining every year – 33% more than the next highest (Penn) and almost three times as many as Dartmouth. This means it simply has a lot more places to fill and therefore gives out more offers.
2. Cornell also has the lowest ‘yield rate’ of any Ivy League college. We’ll explore what this means in more detail later in the guide, but in essence the result is that it has to make a higher percentage of offers in order to fill its places, as a higher proportion of admitted students don’t take up their place.

These factors combine to give Cornell the highest acceptance rate. However, it is important to note that this doesn’t necessarily mean Cornell is the easiest Ivy League to get into. There is no indication that it accepts a lower quality of applicants – the standardised test scores of accepted applicants are in line with the other Ivies, for instance.

The Ivies with the lowest acceptance rates are Harvard, Yale, and Columbia (3.6%, 3.7%, and 3.9%, respectively).

Ivy League Acceptance Rates: Early vs Regular Decision

The headline acceptance rates for all the Ivies are intimidatingly low. But these figures mask significant variation depending on when you apply:

Universty	Early Action / Decision Acceptance Rate	Regular Decision Acceptance Rate
Brown	17.90%	4.00%
Columbia	12.50%	2.50%
Cornell	16.50%	6.20%
Dartmouth	19.20%	5.00%
Harvard	8.70%	2.70%
Penn	15.50%	4.00%
Princeton	15.80%	3.70%
Yale	10.80%	3.60%
Average	14.6%	4.0%

This table shows that those who apply through an Early process (Early Action or Decision) have a significantly higher acceptance rate than those who apply through Regular Decision, often by 3-4x.

The overall Early Action / Decision acceptance rate at the Ivy League is 14.6%, vs 4.0% for Regular Decision. As we explore in our dedicated guide to Early Action applications, this doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s 3-4x easier to get in if you apply Early, as it’s generally understood that the average applicant quality is higher in Early rounds. Nonetheless, it does seem to confer a significant advantage.

Regular Decision acceptance rates are so much lower primarily because colleges receive so many more applications in this round, as there is nothing to stop a single applicant applying to all eight Ivies.

This data also reveals that the highest acceptance rate of any Ivy process is Early Decision at Dartmouth, which has a 19.2% acceptance rate. The lowest is 2.7% for Regular Decision at Harvard.

Yield rate

An often overlooked admissions statistic is ‘yield rate’ – the percentage of applicants who are made offers by a college who then enrol there. Colleges themselves monitor this statistic closely as it is essentially a measure of their prestige and popularity vs their competitors. A college with a high yield rate is most students’ first choice, whereas a college with a lower yield rate often finds that it makes offers to applicants who choose to go elsewhere.

University	Offers	Enrolments	Yield Rate
Brown	2521	1700	67.4%
Columbia	2327	1450	62.3%
Cornell	6076	3194	52.6%
Dartmouth	1710	1150	67.3%
Harvard	1937	1665	86.0%
Penn	3508	2400	68.4%
Princeton	1868	1400	74.9%
Yale	2146	1554	72.4%
Average			65.7%

Harvard has comfortably the highest yield rate of any Ivy League university (86%), which is comparable to Oxford and Cambridge in the UK (85% and 84% respectively). Princeton and Yale are the other two Ivies with yield rates north of 70%.

As mentioned earlier, Cornell’s relatively low yield rate (52.6%) is a major driver of its relatively high acceptance rate – it has to make more offers to fill its places, as almost half of accepted students won’t enrol, which inflates its acceptance rate.

Why are Ivy League acceptance rates so low?

We’ve seen that acceptance rates at all the Ivies are below 10%, with some below 5%. But what makes them so low? If you’re familiar with the UK university system, for instance, you might be surprised that Dartmouth, the #247 university in the world according to QS, has an acceptance rate of 5.4%, whereas Oxford and Cambridge, #4 and #6, have acceptance rates three times as high.

In this section, we’ll explore what drives down acceptance rates at the Ivy League.

High admissions standards, high-quality applicant pool

The first thing to mention is that acceptance rates are low because these schools have very high admissions standards and have to choose between very strong applicants.

The average SAT score of acceptance applicants at the Ivies is in the mid-1550s – a score only achieved by the top 1% of test-takers. To get into these universities, you usually need to be one of the very top-performing students in the US (or the world).

Large number of applicants and small number of places

Mathematically speaking, the Ivies have such low acceptance rates because they receive lots of applications and only have a small number of places. This might seem obvious but it is worth dwelling on for a moment.

The Ivies admit between 1150 (Dartmouth) and 3200 (Penn) students every year – these are very low numbers. Large public universities in the US often have 10x as many places, and even Oxford and Cambridge have around 3500.

In the meantime, their international fame and prestige means that tens of thousands of students want to study at these colleges and submit applications. One way of thinking about their low acceptance rates is that the renown of Ivy League schools far outstrips their (relatively) small size.

You can apply to as many as you like (RD)

One key difference between the Ivy League and Oxbridge admissions processes is that there is nothing to stop students from applying to as many Ivies as they like (during the Regular Decision round), whereas an applicant can only apply to one of Oxford or Cambridge. With more applications, acceptance rates (and yield rates) are driven down.

Similarly, applicants to the UK can only apply to five universities in a single cycle. Many applicants therefore choose not to ‘waste’ one of their five choices on Oxbridge, where they may stand a low chance of success. This means there are fewer speculative applications, the average applicant quality is higher, and acceptance rates go up. In the US, there is nothing to stop an ambitious student from ‘taking a punt’ on Yale or Columbia, even if there chances of getting in are very low.

Why are Ivy League acceptance rates lower than Oxbridge?

In this section, we’ve compared the acceptance rates at the Ivies (~5%) to Oxbridge (~15%) to illustrate the factors that go into a low acceptance rate – and it doesn’t straightforwardly equate to ‘the lower the acceptance rate, the harder the admissions process’.

We’ve already mentioned that the average accepted Ivy applicant scores in the top 1% of all SAT test-takers. There’s no equivalent national aptitude test in the UK, but we can use A-Levels as a proxy for how difficult it is to get into Oxbridge.

At Oxbridge, a student with three or more A*s at A Level has a ~36% acceptance rate. About 2.1% of students get three or more A*s – so 36% of these, or 0.7%, might expect to get into Oxford. This figure is comparable to the top 1% of all SAT sitters who get into the Ivies.

So why, if the quality of admitted students is similarly high at Oxbridge and the Ivy League, are the Ivy League acceptance rates so low?

There are two key reasons:

1. All eight Ivies are smaller than Oxford and Cambridge and have fewer places to give away
2. You can apply to all eight Ivies if you like, whereas you can only apply to one of Oxford or Cambridge (and five universities in total in the UK), so the Ivies receive more applicants per place

How can you improve your chances of admission

With Ivy League acceptance rates so low, how can you improve your chances of getting in?

Apply early

Applying early can significantly improve your odds of admission. Across the Ivy League, acceptance rates for Early Action (EA) or Early Decision (ED) applicants are often three to four times higher than those for Regular Decision (RD).

This does not mean standards are lower – early applicants tend to be stronger on average – but it does mean that applying early signals commitment, allows admissions teams to secure top candidates sooner, and reduces competition within that pool. If you have a clear first-choice university and a strong academic profile by the start of Year 13 (or Grade 12), applying early is one of the most effective strategic advantages available.

Prep intensively for standardised tests

Very high standardised test scores remain a crucial component of a competitive Ivy League application.

As a rough benchmark:

• SAT 1550+ or ACT 36 puts you in a strong position academically
• SAT 1450 or ACT 33 is typically not competitive for most Ivy League schools

While one or two Ivies remain test-optional, strong scores still materially strengthen your application.

Serious preparation – often over many months – is essential if you want your scores to support rather than weaken your candidacy. Working with an experienced SAT or ACT tutor, or taking an SAT or ACT prep course, is highly advisable.

Take lots of APs (US curriculum)

If you are following the US curriculum, admissions tutors will expect to see a high volume of challenging AP courses taken early and performed exceptionally well.

Competitive applicants typically take 7-12 APs, primarily in 10th and 11th grade (before applications go in). They earn 5s in as many subjects as possible, particularly in academically rigorous APs.

The goal is not simply to accumulate APs, but to demonstrate sustained academic performance across multiple subject areas. Ivy League admissions teams place far more weight on the difficulty of your course load and your performance within it than on your GPA alone.

Do well at GCSE & A Level / IB (UK curriculum)

UK students are assessed differently, as APs are not part of the curriculum. As a result, A Level and IB predictions carry enormous weight.

For A Levels, taking 4–5 A Levels is advisable for top-tier applicants. Predicted grades of four or more A*s place you in roughly the top 0.5% of UK students – enough to advantage your application.

For the IB, choose challenging Higher Level subjects and aim for 7s at HL, with an overall predicted score of 44 or 45.

Ivy League universities are acutely aware of how demanding these qualifications are and expect exceptional grades from successful UK applicants.

Note that your grades will be contextualised, so if you are at a school with lower average grades or little track record of sending students to top universities, then performance below these benchmarks may still be competitive.

Exceptional extracurriculars

A common misconception is that Ivy League applicants need to excel at everything. In reality, admissions teams are not looking for perfectly well-rounded individuals – they are building a well-rounded class.

What matters most is depth, not breadth. Successful applicants typically have one or two extracurriculars at an exceptional level and clear evidence of leadership, initiative, or sustained achievement over several years

This could be academic research, entrepreneurship, competitive sport, creative pursuits, or significant community impact. The key is distinction. Being genuinely outstanding in a focused area is far more compelling than participating superficially in many activities.

Work with Dukes Plus

If you’re planning to apply to the Ivy League, we’re here to help! Every year we get students into all eight Ivies, with an acceptance rate 4.5x the average.

Our US application consultants are graduates of top colleges with years of experience supporting students. We’re experts in everything from college shortlisting and application strategy to SAT and ACT preparation, with a track record of success with leading US universities.

If you’re not sure where to begin, why not book a free consultation to discuss your ambitions and how Dukes Plus can help.