How do top schools compare in terms of number of applications received?

Parents Forum
1

I know UCLA reportedly received the most applications last year (over 100,000) – probably the most of any 4-year university, not just the top schools, right? But how close are the others? Is there any site that collects this data?

I’m asking because I cited the UCLA figure to someone recently and they wanted to know if that number was way out of the norm for universities, and I couldn’t answer them.

@ucbalumnus, this seems like the sort of thing you would know . . . ? :slight_smile:

Thanks for the help!

2

As one data point, from the Stanford website as of August 2017:

Overview for the Class of 2021

Total Applicants: 44,073
Total Admits: 2,085
Total Enrolled: 1,708

From the Ann Arbor news (regarding Michigan and the class that started this past September):

UM received 58,590 applications for its incoming class - a 7 percent increase … This year’s total number of applications set a UM record for the 11th consecutive year.

3

Can’t you just google it? Like put it “Berkeley number of applications” “Any other school you want to use as a comparison number of applications” etc. It should be quick and easy to find out on your own.

4

There are “lists” of these types of statistics on the US News site. https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college/articles/2017-09-14/10-colleges-with-the-most-applications

https://www.usnews.com/education/best-colleges/the-short-list-college

5

Thanks @BKSquared, that’s exactly what I wanted!

6

You can also generate this type of list with IPEDS. The order for their 2016-17 database is:

  1. UCLA -- 97k
  2. UCSD -- 84k
  3. UCB -- 83k
  4. UCI -- 78k
  5. UCSB -- 77k
  6. UCD -- 69k
  7. CSULB -- 62k
  8. SDSU -- 61k
  9. NYU -- 61k
  10. BU -- 57k

Among HYPSM… type private colleges, the top 10 are::
20. Cornell – 45k
24. Stanford – 44k
28. Harvard – 39k
29. Penn – 38k
33. Columbia – 37k
41. Northwestern – 35k
55. Vanderbilt – 32k
56. Brown – 32k
60. Duke – 32k
63. Yale – 31k
(If you count USC in this group, it is #12 with 54k)

7

It’s just wonderful to be applying in California! :))

8

Wow!

9

We never paid any attention to the number of applicants overall. We only looked at the stats of the previous year’s applicants, using the Common Data Set (CDS) GPS and SAT/ACT statistics published on the colleges’ websites. We made sure our kids’s stats were in the top quartile of last year’s ADMITTED students. This was no guarantee, of course, but to the extent that admissions is a game of chance even for the most talented applicants,we wanted the starting odds tilted in our favor.