Harvard Acceptance Rate & Admissions Statistics
Cambridge, Massachusetts · Private
Acceptance Rate
4.2%
Applicants
47,893
Admitted
2,003
Enrolled
1,675
Yield
83.6%
UG Enrollment
6,738
Harvard Class of 2029
Arkesh P.
Chief Operating Officer
What is Harvard's acceptance rate?
Harvard's acceptance rate is 4.2% for the Class of 2029, the most recent cycle with confirmed figures from Harvard's 2025/26 Common Data Set. From 47,893 applicants, 2,003 received offers and 1,675 enrolled, producing a yield of 83.6%.
This was the first cohort required to submit SAT or ACT scores since Harvard reinstated testing, and the first cycle in almost a decade where the acceptance rate moved up rather than down.
How does the Class of 2029 compare to the previous cycle?
Against the Class of 2028, applications fell 11%, from 54,008 to 47,893, while offers barely moved, from 1,970 to 2,003. A stable number of offers divided by a smaller pool moved the acceptance rate from 3.6% to 4.2%. The class itself stayed the same size: 1,675 enrolled, in line with every recent cycle.
The difference between the two cycles is the testing requirement. The Harvard Crimson attributes the application decline to the reinstated mandate, announced in April 2024 with little runway for students who had never planned to sit the SAT or ACT. Applicants without scores, or without competitive scores, stepped back. The 47,893 who remained all cleared the requirement and applied knowing every competitor had too.
The rate moved more than the underlying competition did. Offers stayed near 2,000, the class size held at 1,675, and the decline in applications was concentrated among students without scores to submit. What remained was a smaller pool in which every applicant had cleared the same requirement, competing for the same number of seats. On those terms, the Class of 2029 reflects a change in who applied more than a change in what it takes to be admitted.
Has Harvard released Class of 2030 admissions data?
No. Harvard has now withheld acceptance rates, applicant totals, and demographic data for two consecutive cycles. Early action decisions for the Class of 2030 went out on December 18, 2025, and regular decisions followed on Ivy Day, March 26, 2026, with no statistics attached to either release. Under the policy Harvard adopted ahead of the Class of 2029, the data becomes public only when the university reports to the Department of Education in October, months after the class has enrolled.
One structural change did arrive with this cycle: Harvard admitted its first cohort of QuestBridge Match students in early December 2025, which means REA admits were, for the first time, not the earliest members of the incoming class.
Based on the trailing pattern, Crimson Education estimates the Class of 2030 pool at 46,000 to 52,000 applicants with 1,950 to 2,050 offers, an acceptance rate between 3.8% and 4.4%. This is our estimate, not a Harvard figure. Final admit counts have held between 1,965 and 2,003 across the last three confirmed cycles, which keeps the realistic range narrow even while the pool size is uncertain. This page will be updated when official figures land.
How has Harvard's acceptance rate changed over time?
Harvard's acceptance rate fell for most of a decade before rising slightly in the most recent confirmed cycle. The pattern splits into three phases: a slow grind downward through the late 2010s, a pandemic-era surge in applications that pushed the rate to 3.2% at its lowest, and a partial reversal once testing became mandatory again and the pool contracted.
Class of | Applicants | Admitted | Acceptance Rate | Enrolled |
2029 | 47,893 | 2,003 | 4.2% | 1,675 |
2028 | 54,008 | 1,970 | 3.6% | 1,647 |
2027 | 56,937 | 1,965 | 3.5% | 1,645 |
2026 | 61,221 | 1,984 | 3.2% | 1,646 |
2025 | 57,786 | 2,318 | 4.0% | 1,965 |
2024 | 40,248 | 2,015 | 5.0% | 1,407 |
2023 | 43,330 | 1,950 | 4.5% | 1,701 |
2022 | 42,749 | 1,962 | 4.6% | 1,653 |
2021 | 39,506 | 2,056 | 5.2% | 1,687 |
Harvard Common Data Sets & Press Release (Classes of 2021-2029)
The Class of 2024 figure reflects the first pandemic spring, when hundreds of admits took gap years, which is why only 1,407 enrolled. The Class of 2025 enrolled 1,965 students, swollen by those same deferrals returning, alongside a 43% surge in applications during the first test-optional cycle. Neither row reflects a change in how Harvard selects.
Harvard's acceptance rate rose to 4.2% for the Class of 2029, the first meaningful increase since before the pandemic. The cause was an 11% smaller pool, not a lower bar.
Harvard REA vs Regular Decision acceptance rates
Harvard stopped releasing round-by-round figures after the Class of 2028, so the table below is the most recent confirmed data that exists, and likely the last. The Common Data Set only collects round-level counts for binding Early Decision plans, which Harvard does not offer, so there is no future CDS release that will fill the gap.
Looking across the confirmed cycles below, early applicants made up about one in six of the pool and took 35% to 38% of offers. Applying that structure to the confirmed Class of 2029 totals, Crimson estimates Harvard's current early acceptance rate at roughly 8.5% to 10% and the regular rate at roughly 3%, both slightly above the last confirmed figures because the overall pool shrank while offers held.
Class of | REA Applied | REA Admitted | REA Rate | RD Applied | RD Admitted | RD Rate |
2028 | 7,921 | 692 | 8.7% | 46,087 | 1,245 | 2.7% |
2027 | 9,553 | 722 | 7.6% | 47,384 | 1,220 | 2.6% |
2026 | 9,406 | 740 | 7.9% | 51,814 | 1,214 | 2.3% |
2025 | 10,086 | 747 | 7.4% | 47,349 | 1,221 | 2.6% |
2024 | 6,424 | 895 | 13.9% | 33,824 | 1,085 | 3.2% |
Harvard Common Data Sets & Press Release (Classes of 2024-2028)
Applicant Pool by Round
Regular Applicants84%Early Applicants16%
Source: Harvard announcements 2024-28
Admit Pool by Round
Regular Admits61%Early Admits39%
Source: Harvard announcements 2024-28
Why is Harvard's early acceptance rate so much higher?
Mostly because of who applies early. The early pool concentrates applicants who were likely to be admitted in any round.
• Recruited athletes apply almost exclusively through REA, where coach support runs on a November timeline
• Legacy applicants have historically concentrated in the early round as well
• Other candidates with institutional connections
Records made public in the SFFA v. Harvard trial showed that recruited athletes, legacies, dean's interest cases, and children of faculty and staff made up roughly 5% of applicants but around 30% of admits across the 2014-2019 cycles, with recruited athletes admitted at over 80%. Harvard's current CDS still lists alumni relation as Considered, so the legacy channel remains live even after the trial.
Self-selection does the rest of the work. An application that is genuinely finished by November 1, testing complete, essays done, implies a level of preparation and support that predicts admission in either round. Harvard's own admissions site makes the same point, attributing the higher early rate to the strength of the early pool and stating that an individual applicant's outcome would likely be comparable in either round.
None of this makes the early round a softer target for a student without one of those flags. One round is smaller and denser with pre-identified admits, and the math follows from that.
Whether to apply early comes down to readiness, read our full guide on how to get into Harvard for the full decision framework.
The early advantage is real in the data, but it is driven by who applies early. A ready application beats an early one. Students who rush an REA submission to chase the higher rate give up the one thing the data says actually matters.
Arkesh P.
Chief Operating Officer
How many students get off Harvard's waitlist?
Harvard admitted 75 students from the waitlist for Fall 2025, per the CDS 2025-26. The waitlist is unranked, meaning no one holds a numbered position and every file is reconsidered against the shape of the enrolling class. 75 admits against a class of 1,675 makes the waitlist a real pathway in this cycle, around 4% of the enrolled class, which is more movement than most applicants assume a school with an 83.6% yield would ever need.
Waitlist volume swings with yield, so a strong number one year is no promise for the next. But the figure is worth having: a waitlist offer from Harvard is not a polite rejection.
Who applies to Harvard, and who gets in?
Geography
For the Class of 2028, 63% of applicants came from other US states, 31% from abroad, and 6% from Massachusetts. Offers tilted domestic: 70% went to students from other US states, 17% to internationals, and 13% to Massachusetts residents.
For admitted students 70% went to students from other US states, 17% to internationals, and 13% to Massachusetts residents. International applicants made up almost a third of the pool and a sixth of the offers. In the current enrolled class, the Class of 2029, the split is 73% from other US states, 15% international, and 12% from Massachusetts.
Who Applied?
63%Out-of-State (US)31%International6%In-State (MA)
Source: Harvard CDS 2024/25
Who was Admitted?
70%Out-of-State (US)17%International13%In-State (MA)
Source: Harvard CDS 2024/25
In-state applicants hold no admissions advantage; Harvard rates state residency as Not Considered. Massachusetts residents make up a larger share of the enrolled class than of the applicant pool, which reflects yield and pool composition rather than any preference in the reading process.
Gender
The Class of 2029 pool split almost evenly by gender: 24,000 men and 23,872 women applied. Offers tilted slightly the other way, with 1,035 women admitted (4.3% of women who applied) against 968 men (4.0%). Women make up 51.7% of admits and 52.1% of the enrolled class.
Admits by Gender
Women52%Men48%
Source: Harvard Common Dataset 2025/26
What is Harvard's transfer acceptance rate?
Harvard's transfer acceptance rate is 0.6%. For Fall 2025, 2,042 students applied to transfer and 13 were admitted, with 12 enrolling. That is roughly one seventh of the first-year rate, which makes transferring into Harvard one of the narrowest paths in American higher education.
Students weighing a transfer strategy should treat first-year admission as the realistic route and a transfer application as a long shot layered on top of a school they would be happy to stay at.
How does Harvard's acceptance rate compare to other Ivy Leagues?
Harvard posted the lowest acceptance rate in the Ivy League for the Class of 2029, at 4.2%, and held that position even in the cycle its rate rose. Among national peers, only Stanford ran lower. The differences across this table are fractions of a percentage point and carry no strategic meaning for an individual applicant; every school on it rejects more than 95% of the pool.
Applied vs Accepted
AdmittedApplicants
Source: Institutional CDS
How does Harvard read applications?
Every admitted file passes through multiple readers and a committee vote. Applications are read at least twice by different officers, presented in subcommittee, discussed, and voted on before any offer goes out. Territory-based reading means the first reader knows the school, the region, and the context behind the transcript. The data on this page describe outcomes; the process producing them is a room of people building and contesting cases, one file at a time.
In order to be admitted, your application is read at minimum twice, by two people, read several times, presented to several people, and voted on by a committee. It's really very much a group process.
Devery D.
Former Harvard Admissions Officer
What those admissions officers look for, why qualified applicants get turned away, and whether to apply early are covered in the main guide. The academic profile behind these admit numbers, including the GPA distribution and the first test-required score ranges, lives on the requirements page.