What is the Easiest Ivy League School to Get Into?

The Ivy League application process is one of the most competitive in global higher education. With acceptance rates so low and selectivity so intense, students often ask which is the easiest Ivy League school to get into.

In this guide, we examine the most common ways people try to answer that question, from acceptance rates and application routes to test score data, before explaining why the reality is more complex than it first appears.

‘Easiest’ to Get Into by Acceptance Rates

One way many students and parents think about which Ivy League is easiest to get into is by comparing acceptance rates. The higher the percentage of applicants they accept, the easier it is to be accepted, so the thinking goes.

University	Applicants	Offers	Acceptance Rate
Brown	48898	2521	5.20%
Columbia	60248	2327	3.90%
Cornell	72519	6076	8.40%
Dartmouth	31656	1710	5.40%
Harvard	54008	1937	3.60%
Penn	65235	3508	5.40%
Princeton	40468	1868	4.60%
Yale	57465	2146	3.70%

From this table we can see that Cornell has the highest acceptance rate of any Ivy League college, followed by Dartmouth and Penn. But this doesn’t necessarily make Penn the easiest Ivy League school to get into. Cornell’s higher acceptance rate is driven more by the higher number of places it has available and its relatively low yield rate – as we discuss in detail in our dedicated guide to Ivy League acceptance rates.

But there is little evidence that Cornell has lower standards – or, in other words, that it would accept a lower quality of applicant than the other Ivies. Times Higher Education (THE) has written that, “While Cornell University often has a higher acceptance rate compared to other Ivies, it admits students of similar academic calibre”.

‘Easiest’ by Early vs Regular Acceptance Rates

In any case, even if acceptance rate were a reliable guide to how easy a school is to get into, we can add a bit more nuance than just looking at headline acceptance rates. After all, you don’t just apply to a college, you apply through a particular process – whether that’s Early Action, Early Decision, or Regular Decision – and colleges often have radically different acceptance rates depending on the process you applied through.

University	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%

Dartmouth has the application process with the highest acceptance rate – its Early Decision process admits 19.2% of applicants, with Brown next highest at 17.9%. (Columbia and Harvard have the lowest rates, at 2.5% and 2.7% respectively for their Regular Decision processes.)

Easiest Ivy League School to Get Into by Test Scores

You can probably already tell that we don’t think acceptance rates are a lot of use when it comes to working out which is the easiest Ivy League school to get into. The key reason is that acceptance rates alone don’t tell us anything about the quality of the applicant pool.

To illustrate: let’s say a college with 1,000 places to give away receives 100,000 applications every year. All of these applications are from students with low test scores, poor GPAs, and bad essays. The college’s acceptance rate is only 1%, but that doesn’t make it hard to get into – a student with solid test scores and essays would still get in, because they’d be the strongest applicant out of a weak pool.

 A better way of working out how hard it is to get into a college is to look at the standardised test scores of admitted students. This will give us an idea of the academic standard required to be admitted at each college.

SAT Scores for Admitted Applicants

University	25th Percentile	Median	75th Percentile
Brown	1510	1535	1560
Columbia	1470	1500	1530
Cornell	1510	1535	1560
Dartmouth	1500	1540	1580
Harvard	1500	1530	1580
Penn	1430	1500	1570
Princeton	1510	1535	1560
Yale	1500	1530	1560

From this table, we can see that Columbia and Penn have the lowest median SAT scores of any Ivy League. At least when it comes to the SAT, these two colleges seem to have lower standards than the other Ivies.

Cornell, with the highest acceptance rate, has a median SAT score for admitted applicants of 1535, ahead of Harvard and Yale – confirming THE’s point that there is nothing to suggest that it admits a lower calibre of student than other Ivies.

Our dedicated guide to the SAT scores required for the Ivy League contains more analysis of this and other data.

ACT Scores for Admitted Applicants

University	25th Percentile	Median	75th Percentile
Brown	34	35	35
Columbia	34	35	35
Cornell	33	34	35
Dartmouth	32	33	35
Harvard	34	35	36
Penn	34	35	35
Princeton	34	35	35
Yale	33	34	35

The other standardised test used by the Ivies is, of course, the ACT. It’s harder to use ACT score data to determine which is the easiest Ivy League school to get into, as with fewer total points available, there is less to distinguish at the top end: most Ivies have a median ACT score for accepted applicants of 35.

Surprisingly, while Dartmouth had the highest median SAT score, it has the lowest median ACT score (33).

As with the SAT, Harvard has the highest 75^th percentile, suggesting that at the top end the academic quality of its applicant pool is the highest of all the Ivies. Coupled with the fact that it has the second lowest overall acceptance rate and lowest Early acceptance rate, there is a fairly consistent bank of evidence that Harvard may be the hardest Ivy League school to get into.

Other Parts of the Application

So far, we’ve focused on the data – the quantitative evidence for which is the easiest Ivy to get into. But what this misses is that the Ivies themselves don’t only look at the numbers – their admissions processes also include a substantial amount of qualitative selection.

Whether it’s a candidate’s application essays, recommendations and references, extra-curriculars, or alumni interviews, there is a lot that goes into these schools’ holistic decision-making that is non-numerical.

Is there an Easiest Ivy League School to Get Into?

Looking at test scores in isolation will always miss something important, because the Ivy League universities themselves do not assess applicants in isolation through numbers alone. An SAT or ACT score is read in context, alongside the rest of an application, rather than treated as decisive in itself.

For example, universities such as Penn or Columbia may be willing to admit students with SAT scores in the 1400s if other parts of the application are especially strong. They may place greater weight on outstanding extra-curriculars, leadership, intellectual curiosity shown outside the classroom, or essays that demonstrate depth of thinking and originality in a way standardised testing cannot. In some cases, admissions tutors may see a student’s writing or recommendations as a better indicator of how they will contribute academically than a 50-point difference in SAT scores.

Does this make those Ivies ‘easier’ to get into? Possibly – but only for certain students. If you excel at tests but have a thinner profile elsewhere, these universities may actually be harder for you than Ivies that lean more heavily on academic metrics. Conversely, a student with slightly lower scores but a compelling overall profile may find themselves more competitive at schools that value breadth and fit.

In truth, all the Ivies are looking for slightly different things. Truly exceptional candidates – for example, those in the top 0.1% academically or in a particular field – might get into any Ivy they choose. Beyond that level, however, admissions decisions are shaped by the college’s priorities, fit with its character and ethos, subject balance, and the desire to build a diverse, well-rounded cohort rather than simply admitting the applicants with the highest numbers.

Conclusion

In practice, there is probably no such thing as the easiest Ivy League school to get into. Framing the Ivies on a single scale from hardest to easiest suggests a linear hierarchy that does not reflect how admissions decisions are actually made. Admission to the ‘hardest’ Ivy does not imply that an applicant would automatically be admitted to the other, ‘easier’ ones, nor does rejection from one say anything decisive about their chances elsewhere.

For applicants, this means the more useful question is not “which Ivy is easiest to get into?”, but “which Ivy am I best suited to?”. Focusing on alignment – where your academic interests, strengths, and ambitions genuinely match what a particular university is looking for – is far more productive than chasing marginal differences in acceptance rates. At this level of selectivity, success comes from fit and coherence, not from trying to identify a single ‘easier’ option.

How Dukes Plus Can Help

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 helping students select the schools that best suit them and creating a personal application strategy that maximises their chances of acceptance. We also offer the highest standards of SAT preparation 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.