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Ivy League Acceptance Rates for the Class of 2028
25/04/2024•14 minute read
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Ivy League Acceptance Rates
Why Are They Low?
Trends
Who Gets Accepted?
March 28 was Ivy Day 2024! It was a day full of excitement and emotions and students around the world learned if they were accepted into their dream Ivy League school.
On this day, all Ivy League schools release their admission statistics - let’s compare the acceptance rate of the different Ivy Leagues for Class of 2028.
It’s important to remember the schools in the Ivy League are some of the most selective schools in the world.
Tens of thousands of students apply every year, but only a tiny percentage actually get accepted. Let’s take a look at the new Class of 2028 acceptance rates and how they compare with the numbers over the last 10 years.
Ivy League Class of 2028 Admissions Results
The results are in! Some of the Ivy League schools, such as Yale and Dartmouth, accepted a record low number of students into their Class of 2028. While a few reported numbers similar to last year’s Class of 2027, some of the universities saw numbers slowly start to increase towards their pre-Covid figures.
Harvard only accepted 3.6% of its 54,008 applicants and Columbia reported that only 3.8% of its applicants received admission letters!
Check out the full list of the Ivy League Class of 2028 results below:
Ivy League Class of 2028 Acceptance Rates
| Ivies | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|
| Harvard | 3.6% |
| Columbia | 3.9% |
| Yale | 3.7% |
| Brown | 5.2% |
| Penn | 5.4% (Projected) |
| Dartmouth | 5.3% |
| Princeton | N/A |
| Cornell | TBA |
Why Are Ivy League Acceptance Rates So Low?
This year has proven again to be one of the most competitive in the history of the Ivy League. Many of the acceptance rates are record-lows, while some acceptance rates only increased slightly from previous record-lows. This ongoing trend is likely due in part to the following:
- Return to pre-pandemic figures
- Pent-up demand
- Resurgence of standardized testing
- More applications per student
The numbers in the chart below show it’s getting even more difficult to get into the Ivy League. In general, more students applied to the Ivies than ever before. Brown and Harvard are the only Ivies that saw a slight increase in acceptance rates, but minimal in the overall admittance picture.
Ivy League Acceptance Rate Over The Last 8 Years
| Class of: | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 | 2027 | 2028 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | 5.2% | 4.6% | 4.5% | 4.9% | 3.4% | 3.2% | 3.4% | 3.6% |
| Columbia | 5.8% | 5.5% | 5.1% | 6.1% | 3.7% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 3.85% |
| Yale | 6.9% | 6.3% | 5.9% | 6.5% | 4.6% | 4.5% | 4.35% | 3.7% |
| Brown | 8.3% | 7.2% | 6.6% | 6.9% | 5.4% | 5.0% | 5.1% | 5.2% |
| UPenn | 9.2% | 8.4% | 7.4% | 8.1% | 5.7% | 4.4% | 4.1% | 5.4% (estimate) |
| Dartmouth | 10.4% | 8.7% | 7.9% | 8.8% | 6.2% | 6.2% | 6% | 5.3% |
| Princeton | 6.1% | 5.5% | 5.8% | 5.6% | 4.0% | ~4.0% | ~4.% | n/a |
| Cornell | 12.5% | 10.3% | 10.6% | 10.7% | 8.7% | ~8.0% | ~8% | TBA |
Ivy League acceptance rates over the last 8 years
What Ivy League School Has The Highest Acceptance Rate?
The Ivy League school with the highest acceptance rate in 2024 is Brown. However, UPenn might potentially have a higher acceptance rate. The university does not release admissions data so we can just estimate based on past figures. Additionally, Cornell did not release its acceptance rate for Class of 2028 yet.
With an average acceptance rate of about 6.2% (based on the numbers since Class of 2021), Brown is the easiest Ivy League to get into out of the schools releasing their admission stats this year.
What Ivy League School Has The Lowest Acceptance Rate?
The Ivy League school is the lowest acceptance rate continues to be Harvard, despite the minor increase in acceptance rate.
With an average acceptance rate of around 3% (based on numbers since Class of 2021), Harvard is the hardest Ivy League to get into.
Application Shifts
Applications to Harvard dropped by 17% in the early round, and saw applications drop by 3% for the regular round. Meanwhile, Yale has more students applying and fewer slots than ever since Yale has reduced its overall class size by 6% this year.
This puts Harvard’s acceptance rate of 3.6% in spitting distance of Yale’s 3.7%.
Which Ivy League receives the most applications?
Brown is the Ivy League school that receives the most applications each year, and it’s not surprising since they their acceptance rate has dropped significantly over the past years, almost as low as Harvard’s. They received 60,248 applications for their class of 2028.
Which Ivy League receives the least number of applications?
Dartmouth University is the Ivy League school that receives the least amount of applications. On average, they receive nearly 23,000 applications each year, and this year they received 31,657 applications, almost half of the number of applications as Columbia’s.
The chart below highlights the trend in the number of applications to all eight Ivy League schools over the last ten years.
What Are Ivy League Schools Looking For?
While exceptional credentials won’t hurt your application, it might come as a surprise that Ivy League universities are not looking for perfect students. They’re also not looking for well-rounded students. The application pile is filled with students who participate in everything but don’t shine at anything.
Ivy League schools are looking for people who stick out from the crowd, experts in their area of interest. Ivy League colleges want world-changers who are making positive marks on society with the resources available to them.
“
We look for students with intellectual curiosity, who have pursued and achieved academic excellence. We also look for students with strong personal and extracurricular accomplishments
- Princeton University Admissions
Ivy League universities are also looking for world-changers who can positively contribute to their community. They’re looking for humble leaders who will bring accomplishment and recognition to the school and those willing to share their knowledge to help fellow students accomplish their goals.
Read more on How to get into an Ivy League School!
Who Gets Into The Ivy League?
It’s no mystery. Getting into an Ivy League school is nearly impossible, yet hundreds of Crimson Education students get accepted to one (and sometimes more than one) Ivy League school each year.
Our students have smashed early and regular round records for the Class of 2028! Here’s a breakdown of the numbers:
- 126 offers to the Ivy League.
- 280+ offers to the US Top 20, including offers to Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Duke, Johns Hopkins, Northwestern, University of Chicago, Rice, Vanderbilt, and University of Notre Dame.
- 15% of Ivy League and 27% of top 20 early round applicants received offers to their dream schools.
- 1280+ offers to the US Top 50, including offers to NYU, University of Michigan, Georgetown, Carnegie Mellon, Emory, University of Virginia, and Washington University in St. Louis.
- 1000+ offers to each student’s first choice school.
We attribute this unprecedented success to our teamwork mentality. Students, their families, and Crimson tutors and mentors work together to create stellar admissions-worthy applications.
Congratulations, Students! From Crimson Strategists
About the Contributor
Arkesh Patel
Arkesh Patel is the Chief Operating Officer of Crimson Education, the world's largest and most successful university admissions consulting firm. Crimson Education has helped thousands of students gain admission into the Ivy League and top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge, Stanford, MIT, and many others. Arkesh graduated from the University of Cambridge with a B.A in Chemistry (First Class Honors) and received his M.B.A with Distinction from Harvard Business School.
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