It’s April and all the Ivies and highly competitive colleges and universities have notified applicants of their decisions. Even with the COVID-19 pandemic, college admissions offices are in operation. For some of the Ivies and selective colleges the admissions rates have slightly increased. The reality is that even with these small increases, it’s still hyper-competitive to gain admissions to these schools. For example, Harvard’s admit rate was 4.9%, up from 4.6% last year. However, the 4.9% indicates that 1,980 applicants were admitted of the 40,248 who applied or 38,368 (95.4%) applicants were rejected! Yale’s admit rate was 6.54% up from 5.91% last year. Therefore, the 5.1% represents 2,304 accepted applicants of the 35,220 who applied or 32,916 (94.8%) applicants who were rejected.
The coronavirus pandemic may have disrupted college tours, SAT test dates, and high school in-person classes, but not college admissions activity! The fundamentals of college committee assessment and selection are the same: they will be selecting the best students who will be contributing to their individual college communities and mission.
If you are a high school junior and will start the application process in 6 months, admissions committees will be evaluating your applications! You should prepare accordingly!
Here are this year’s total admissions rates for Ivy League and some of the highly selective colleges and universities (last year’s rates are in red):
- Boston College: 24% | 27.1%
- Boston University: 18.5% | 18%
- Bowdoin College: 8.3% | 8.9%
- Brown University: 6.9% | 6.6%
- Carnegie Mellon University: TBA
- Colby College: 9.4% | 9.6%
- Columbia University: 6.1% | 5.3%
- Cornell University: TBA
- Dartmouth College: 8.8% | 7.9%
- Duke University: 7.7% | 7.4%
- Harvard University: 4.92% | 4.6%
- Johns Hopkins University: 8.8% | 9.1%
- MIT: 7.2% | 6.6%
- New York University: 15% | 16%
- Princeton University: 5.55% | 5.8%
- Swarthmore College: 8.8% | 8.7%
- University of Chicago: TBA | 5.9%
- University of Pennsylvania: 8.0% | 7.4%
- University of Southern California: 16% | 11%
- University of Virginia: 20.5% | 24.3%
- Yale University: 6.54% | 5.91%
This year, all of our clients were accepted into their top-choice colleges including Ivy League and highly selective colleges and universities. In fact, several of our clients were accepted to two or more Ivies!
“Admissions is a competitive sport! Why gamble with uncertainty?” – Dr. Paul Lowe
“We provide our clients access to our specialized knowledge!” – Dr. Paul Lowe
Dr. Paul Reginald Lowe, founder and managing director of Pinnacle Educational Center Admissions Advisors Group, provides comprehensive counseling advice, exclusively for admissions to top private schools; Ivy League and highly-selective colleges/universities; BS/MD programs; graduate and medical schools and top visual and performing arts programs. The admissions affiliate: Ivy League Admissions Advisors specializes in admissions to Ivy League and highly selective colleges, Dr. Lowe also specializes in helping students who have been wait-listed, deferred or rejected gain admission into their top-choice schools: College Application Rejected. and student who wish to transfer to another college: College Transfer Admissions Advisors.
Dr. Paul Lowe - Admissions Expert 