College Admissions Statistics Class of 2021: Early and Regular Decision Acceptance Rates

When does Rice typically release their RD data and overall rate?

@houston1021 Usually Rice releases their data very late (late summer-early fall) on their Class Profile and with little fanfare, so you don’t actually know when they are posted except if you check the admissions website regularly. This year the Washington Post got them to reveal their ED numbers which was surprising. Maybe this is a change in their openness policy.

*Ranked Admissions Data
Class of 2021: Top 20 Liberal Arts Colleges

Total Applications:**
1.Wesleyan University12,543
2.Colby College 11,190
3.Swarthmore College 9,383
4.Pomona College 9,046
5.Middlebury College 8,910
6.Williams College 8,593
7.Colorado College 8,215
8.Vassar College 7,746
9.Barnard College 7,716
10.Bowdoin College 7,240
11.Carleton College 6,500
12.Claremont McKenna College 6,350
13.Macalester College 5,901
14.Hamilton College 5,700
15.Wellesley College 5,700
16.Kenyon College 5,600
17.Haverford College 4,424
18.Harvey Mudd College 4,078
19.Pitzer College 3,753
20.Scripps College 2,841

RD Acceptance Rate:
1.Pomona RD 554 out of 8155 (6.8%)
2.Claremont RD 450 out of 5683 (7.9%)
3.Swarthmore ED/RD 960 out of 9383 (10.2%)
4.Bowdoin RD 719 out of 6264 (11.5%)
5.Williams College RD 996 out of 7865 (12.7%)
6.Harvey Mudd RD 485 out of 3575 (13.6%)
7.Colorado College ED1/ED2/EA/RD 1212 out of 8215 (14.7%)
8.Barnard ED/RD 1139 out of 7716 (14.8%)
9.Wesleyan ED1/ED2/RD 1932 out 12,543 (15.4%)
10.Pitzer ED1/ED2/RD 584 out of 3753 (15.6%)
11.Colby ED1/ED2/RD 1750 out of 11,190 (15.6%)
12.Middlebury RD 1350 out of 8082 (16.7%)
13.Haverford ED/RD 859 out of 4424 (19.4%)
14.Carleton College ED1/ED2/RD 1300 out of 6500 (20%)
15.Wellesley ED1/ED2/RD 1197 out of 5700 (21%)
16.Vassar ED1/ED2/RD 1769 out of 7746 (22.8%)
17.Hamilton ED1/ED2/RD ~1345 out of 5700 (23.6%)
18.Kenyon ED/RD 1850 out of 5600 (33.0%)
19.Scripps ED1/ED2/RD 949 out of 2841 (33.4%)
20.Macalester ED1/ED2/RD ~2301 out of 5901 (39.0%)

Early Acceptance Rate:
1.Harvey Mudd ED1/ED2 81 out of 503 (16.1%)
2.Pomona ED1/ED2 187 out of 891 (21.0%)
3.Bowdoin ED1/ED2 244 out of 976 (25%)
4.Claremont ED1/ED2 207 out of 667 (34.1%)
5.Pitzer ED1/ED2 __ out of __ (34.4%)
6.Williams ED 257 out of 728 (35.3%)
7.Scripps ED1/ED2 __ out of __ (38%)
8.Middlebury ED1/ED2 403 out 828 (48.7%)

Total Acceptance Rate:
1.Pomona ED1/ED2/RD 741 out of 9046 (8.2%)
2.Swarthmore ED/RD 960 out of 9383 (10.2%)
3.Claremont ED1/ED2/RD 657 out of 6350 (10.3%)
4.Bowdoin ED1/ED2/RD 963 out of 7240 (13.3%)
5.Harvey Mudd ED1/ED2/RD 566 out of 4078 (13.8%)
6.Williams ED/RD 1253 out of 8593 (14.6%)
7.Colorado College ED1/ED2/EA/RD 1212 out of 8215 (14.7%)
8.Barnard ED/RD 1139 out of 7716 (14.8%)
9.Wesleyan ED1/ED2/RD 1932 out 12,543 (15.4%)
10.Pitzer ED1/ED2/RD 584 out of 3753 (15.6%)
11.Colby ED1/ED2/RD 1750 out of 11,190 (15.6%)
12.Haverford ED/RD 859 out of 4424 (19.4%)
13.Middlebury ED1/ED2/RD 1753 out of 8910 (19.7%)
14.Carleton College ED1/ED2/RD 1300 out of 6500 (20%)
15.Wellesley ED1/ED2/RD 1197 out of 5700 (21%)
16.Vassar ED1/ED2/RD 1769 out of 7746 (22.8%)
17.Hamilton ED1/ED2/RD 1345 out of 5700 (23.6%)
18.Kenyon ED/RD 1850 out of 5600 (33.0%)
19.Scripps ED1/ED2/RD 949 out of 2841 (33.4%)
20.Macalester ED1/ED2/RD 2301 out of 5901 (39.0%)

*Excluding for insufficient data: Amherst, Davidson, Grinnell, Oberlin, Smith, Washington & Lee

If I haven’t said it before, then thank you @spayurpets for all your data work.

Not including Bates and Colgate in top-20 LAC?

I don’t know whether it makes a difference. Colgate never releases any data until after the summer, so it’s academic whether they would be included in the list. Bates also has no data, and I think it falls outside of what most people think are the top 20 LACs. Right now I gave the benefit of the doubt to schools like Pitzer and Macalester and Kenyon because they were more forthcoming with data; we can debate what the final list is when schools might not make the cut. (Also, 20 is completely arbitrary, so we could easily expand the list as well.)

The LACs we had data for that I kept off the list were Trinity and Union; they might have the most reasons to gripe.

My husband is at Caltech’s Prefrosh Weekend attending with my son. I asked him to report any admissions information that was given out. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a detailed slide, but this is what I have from him:

“Caltech admitted 525 out of around 8000 applicants. Sure about the 525; don’t remember for sure if it was 7K or 8K applicants. 52% of admitted pool is female.”

Edit: Found press release that cites the 525 number, but still no number of applications: http://www.caltech.edu/news/admitted-students-get-sneak-peek-caltech-life-prefrosh-weekend-54738

The Brown acceptance rate is a little off. Brown admitted 2027 students for RD this year.

Another article on Colby admissions. Have not checked to see if it adds additional information.

http://colbyechonews.com/class-2021-shatters-previous-admission-records/

I’m not sure who asked about this upthread, but here’s Lehigh: http://thebrownandwhite.com/2017/04/20/lehigh-acceptance-rate/

@spayurpets

So now when I see the face of the black cat that is your profile picture, I am conditioned to expect to see new college acceptance data.
Side effect: when I see actual black cats in the neighborhood, my thoughts immediately go to colleges. Yesterday I saw a flyer for a lost cat on the way home from the store. I realized it indirectly caused me to start thinking of my son’s upcoming AP exams.

Bottom line: your posts are powerful.

@Casper999 Funny, I had no idea my random choice of avatar could be triggering these responses!

Actually, Bates is well within the Top 20 LACs. Starting with the idiotic US News ranking, Bates comes in at 14 - ties don’t really create the jumps US News forces. A “better” way to look at rankings comes from the Washington Post, and it places Bates in the Top 20. Check it out here:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2016/10/20/heres-a-new-college-ranking-based-entirely-on-other-college-rankings/?utm_term=.972d747f0e94

That’s a great list. Thanks. I will use that one from now on!!!

@MadsDad, it’s a matter of debate about Bates. I personally believe that students prefer Colorado College, Harvey Mudd (which wasn’t on the WaPo composite list), Haverford, and Barnard to Bates; and their selectivity will be reflected in more accomplished high school students. Bates is probably equally selective as Smith, Carleton, Oberlin and Grinnell, but those schools have much better students as a whole than Bates. I certainly could be convinced otherwise, but there a great mix of schools at that level that makes rankings of 10-25

Oops, couldn’t finish my thoughts on Bates before the post was saved. The eight schools I listed in the post are below Bates on the WaPo list, and think all of them arguably should be higher ranked than Bates in what most people think of as the Top 20 LACs.

I believe that based on reputation, both among students and among peer institutions, people would put Bates further down the list. And certainly when I was growing up in New England, there was a clear delineation in quality between Bowdoin and Colby on the one hand and Bates on the other. That was many years ago so maybe I’m not as in tune with changes in perception of Bates recently.

What I do know is that Bates is very close lipped about their admissions data and accepted student stats, so for our list purposes there’s nothing up for debate.

@spayurpets, not to continue to let this thread deviate from its intent, but in looking at the Wash Post ranking I was surprised to see Colgate ranked above Hamilton as we don’t see them profile the same at my DD’s HS; that said I know USNWR has them both as 12…

Re: That WaPo ranking:

Eh. People like to split hairs so much.
For what it’s worth, Bates is among the top 20 elite MBA program feeders (on a per capita basis):

https://www.■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/blog/category/infographics/

Only 5 other LACs can say the same.

PurpleTitan, interesting information in your link. Reed College blows them all out of the water. Number one when considering all disciplines in terms of students going on to earn Ph.D.s: one in biology and English; two in math and science, physics, history; three in economics and chemistry; seven in sociology; eight in political science. Reed, by the way, has also produced (on a per capita basis) an inordinate number of Rhodes Scholars when compared to other LACs. And yet Reed is not in any of the major top twenty rankings, which just goes to show how arbitrary rankings are and how ludicrous they are to argue over.

I think rankings are helpful directionally, but we all know that they are not the be-all and end-all to predicting the success of a college graduate. At the end of the day, it really has to do with the person at the end of the four years, and not the name on the diploma.

As an example, I know of a girl that just graduated from American University. A good school, for sure, but not as “prestigious” or as highly ranked as Georgetown. She had turned down Georgetown for AU 5 years ago when it was time to make the decision (she just felt a better connection). She ended up thriving at AU and got a GREAT job with a big hedge fund company. Of course there is no way to know what the outcome would have been for her if she had gone to Georgetown, but it just goes to show that going to a “lesser” ranked or prestigious school can of course still lead to great opportunities. She’s an amazing girl and in the end that’s what showed through.

I think the higher ranked schools can help open doors with recruiters and grad schools (I think more so with recruiters…I feel like grad schools might dig a little deeper when evaluating an applicant?), but there are other ways to launch successful careers.

Nonetheless, it’s hard sometimes to get beyond the rankings. But we definitely should try to.