Stanford Acceptance Rate & Admissions Statistics
Stanford, California · Private
Published:
Acceptance Rate
3.8%
Applicants
60,646
Admitted
2,302
Enrolled
1,839
Yield
79.9%
UG Enrollment
7,346
Stanford Class of 2029
Arkesh P.
Chief Operating Officer
What is Stanford's acceptance rate?
Stanford's acceptance rate is 3.8% for the Class of 2029. From 60,646 applicants, 2,302 received offers and 1,839 enrolled, a yield of 79.9%.
Two things distinguish this cycle. The pool of 60,646 was the largest in Stanford's history, and it was the last admitted under test-optional rules: Stanford's reinstated SAT/ACT requirement takes effect with applications for Fall 2026 entry, the Class of 2030. What that changes is covered below.
How does the Class of 2029 compare to the previous cycle?
Against the Class of 2028, applications rose 5.8%, from 57,326 to 60,646, and offers rose 11.4%, from 2,067 to 2,302. The acceptance rate moved from 3.6% to 3.8% as a result, and the enrolled class grew from 1,693 to 1,839, the largest first-year class in recent cycles. Yield eased from 81.9% to 79.9%, which is what a deliberately larger admit pool tends to do.
The mechanism differs from what happened at test-required peers the same year. Stanford's pool grew in its final optional cycle while offers grew faster, consistent with an intentionally expanded class rather than any change in selection. A record pool and a record class arriving together means the competition per seat barely moved, whatever the third decimal of the rate says.
A rising acceptance rate is not an easier Stanford
The Class of 2029 rate rose because Stanford made 235 more offers and enrolled its largest recent class, against the biggest applicant pool in its history. The bar for an individual applicant did not move, and the pool it applied within had never been larger. Treat 3.8% as a description of one cycle's arithmetic, nothing more.
Has Stanford released Class of 2030 admissions data?
No, and it won't for a while. Stanford ended decision-day announcements with the Class of 2023 and has released admissions figures only through the Common Data Set since. Class of 2030 data is expected in late 2027, when the CDS 2026-27 is published.
Based on the observed patterns and one strong precedent, Crimson estimates the Class of 2030 pool at 52,000 to 58,000 applicants with 2,150 to 2,350 offers, an acceptance rate between 3.7% and 4.5%. This is our estimate and not a Stanford figure.
The reasoning: the Class of 2030 is Stanford's first test-required cohort, and when Harvard crossed the same line a year earlier its pool contracted 11% while offers held steady. Applying a similar contraction to Stanford's 60,646, against offer counts that have run 2,067-2,349 across six cycles and a class Stanford has just chosen to enlarge, produces the range above. This page will be updated when official figures land.
Stanford has published no decision-day admissions figures since 2018. Class of 2030 data, the first test-required cohort, arrives with the CDS in late 2027.
What changes with the test-required Class of 2030?
Application Pool Drops
Applicants without scores, or without scores they consider competitive, self-select out, which is precisely what happened at Harvard in its first required cycle. A smaller pool with stable offers pushes the published rate up; read that rise as a more committed pool rather than an easier Stanford.
Published Score Ranges Drop
Today's ranges describe self-selected submitters, the students confident enough to send scores; when every enrolled student appears in the data, the distribution widens downward mechanically. Harvard's EBRW 700-800 share dropped eleven points in its first required cycle for exactly this reason. The class stays as strong as ever; the data will finally describe all of it.
How has Stanford's acceptance rate changed over time?
Stanford's acceptance rate has fallen by nearly half over the last decade, from 7.1% for the Class of 2015 to below 4% in every recent cycle. The long arc has two authors: a pool that grew from around 34,000 to over 60,000, and offer counts that stayed pinned between roughly 2,050 and 2,350 the entire time. Every major swing in the rate has come from the size of the pool.
Class of | Applicants | Admitted | Acceptance Rate | Enrolled | Yield |
2029 | 60,646 | 2,302 | 3.8% | 1,839 | 79.9% |
2028 | 57,326 | 2,067 | 3.6% | 1,693 | 81.9% |
2027 | 53,733 | 2,099 | 3.9% | 1,699 | 80.9% |
2026 | 56,378 | 2,075 | 3.7% | 1,736 | 83.7% |
2025 | 55,471 | 2,190 | 3.9% | 1,757 | 80.2% |
2024 | 45,227 | 2,349 | 5.2% | 1,607 | 68.4% |
2023 | 47,498 | 2,062 | 4.3% | 1,701 | 82.5% |
2022 | 47,452 | 2,071 | 4.4% | 1,697 | 81.9% |
2021 | 44,073 | 2,085 | 4.7% | 1,703 | 81.7% |
2020 | 43,997 | 2,118 | 4.8% | 1,739 | 82.1% |
Stanford CDS
The Class of 2024 is the pandemic cycle: yield collapsed to 68.4% as admits took gap years, which is why Stanford made 2,349 offers, the most in the table, and still enrolled its smallest class. The rebound shows up in the crowded cycles that follow. Neither row reflects a change in how Stanford selects.
Stanford REA vs Regular Decision acceptance rates
Stanford stopped releasing round-by-round figures after the Class of 2020, so the confirmed data below is genuinely historical, and no future release will extend it: the Common Data Set only collects round-level counts for binding Early Decision plans, which Stanford does not offer.
The structure of those confirmed cycles is still worth looking forward, held loosely given its age. Across the five cycles below, early applicants made up about one in six of the pool and took roughly a third of offers. Applied to the confirmed Class of 2029 totals, that structure implies a current REA rate somewhere around 6.5% to 9% and a Regular Decision rate around 3%, with the early pool having grown industry-wide since these cycles closed. These are again our estimates built on a structure last confirmed nearly a decade ago, not Stanford figures.
| REA Applied | REA Admitted | REA Rate | RD Applied | RD Admitted | RD Rate |
2020 | 7,822 | 745 | 9.5% | 36,175 | 1,373 | 3.8% |
2019 | 7,297 | 743 | 10.2% | 35,200 | 1,397 | 4.0% |
2018 | 6,948 | 748 | 10.8% | 35,219 | 1,397 | 4.0% |
2017 | 6,103 | 725 | 11.9% | 32,725 | 1,483 | 4.5% |
2016 | 5,880 | 755 | 12.8% | 30,752 | 1,668 | 5.4% |
Stanford Announced Figures Class 2016-2020 & Estimates for Class 2021-2023
Applicant Pool by Round
Regular83%Early17%
Admit Pool by Round
Regular66%Early34%
Source: Classes of 2016-2020
The early advantage looked dramatic in every confirmed cycle, an early rate two to three times the regular rate, and it was decreasing the whole time: from 12.8% for the Class of 2016 to 9.5% by the Class of 2020, as early applications grew by a third while early offers held near 750.
Why is Stanford's early acceptance rate so much higher?
Mostly because of who sits in the early pool. Applying early does nothing to strengthen any individual file.
Recruited athletes are the biggest factor. Stanford runs the largest athletic program in the country and, unlike its Ivy League peers, awards athletic scholarships: 140 first-years received one in the latest CDS. Recruitment runs on coach timelines that demand a November commitment, so recruited athletes apply through REA almost without exception.
Legacy applicants add to the effect. Alumni relation is rated Considered in Stanford's factor table, and legacy applicants have historically concentrated in early rounds across selective admissions. The rest of the early pool self-selects for readiness: an application genuinely finished by November 1 usually belongs to a student who would have been strong in any round.
Put those groups together and the higher early rate mostly explains itself. They were likely to be admitted whenever they applied; grouping them into the smaller early round pushes that round's percentage up on paper without improving anyone else's odds. If you don't carry one of those flags, the higher early number offers you no extra edge: it describes who was in the room.
Read our full guide on How to Get Into Stanford to know whether applying early to Stanford would be ideal for you.
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 Stanford's waitlist?
For Fall 2025, Stanford offered 669 applicants a place on the waitlist, 573 accepted the spot, and 57 were ultimately admitted, per the CDS 2025-26. That's an admission rate of 9.9% among students who stayed on the list, and it made the waitlist the entry route for about 3% of the enrolled class. The list is unranked: no one holds a numbered position, and files are reconsidered against the shape of the enrolling class as spaces open.
The full funnel is worth reading closely, because it answers the question you actually have if you're holding a spot on it. Roughly one in seven offered a spot declined to take it; among those who held on, one in ten got in. Movement swings with yield year to year, but a Stanford waitlist offer is a live outcome worth taking seriously.
Who applies to Stanford, and who gets in?
Geography
Stanford left the applicant residency breakdown blank in the newest CDS, so no confirmed pool geography exists for this cycle. The enrolled class gives the current picture on the international side: 237 of 1,866 first-years are international students, 12.7% of the class, and international undergraduates make up about 13% of the college overall.
Enrolled Class Domestic vs International
Domestic87%International13%
Source: Stanford CDS 2025/26
Gender
The Class of 2029 pool tilted male: 31,609 men and 29,011 women applied, with 26 of unknown sex. Offers split nearly evenly, 1,162 men and 1,140 women, which means women were admitted at a slightly higher rate: 3.9% of women who applied against 3.7% of men. The enrolled class runs 945 men and 894 women.
Applicants by Gender
Men52%Women48%
Admits by Gender
Men51%Women49%
Source: Stanford CDS 2025/26
What is Stanford's transfer acceptance rate?
Stanford's transfer acceptance rate is 2.3%. For Fall 2025, 4,532 students applied to transfer, 102 were admitted, and 89 enrolled. That is a hard road by any standard, and still nearly four times more open than Harvard's 0.6% transfer rate the same year; Stanford has maintained a genuine, if narrow, transfer pathway where several peers keep a nominal one. Test scores are not required for transfer applicants, and there is no minimum credit threshold.
How does Stanford's acceptance rate compare to other top schools?
Stanford posted the lowest acceptance rate in this peer set for the Class of 2029, a position it has held or shared for most of the last decade. The differences across the table are fractions of a percentage point and carry no strategic meaning for you as an applicant; every school on it rejects more than 95% of the pool.
Applied vs Accepted
AdmittedApplicants
Source: Institutional CDS
How does Stanford read applications?
Every file gets human eyes, and decisions are made collectively. Applications are read in regional context by officers who know the schools behind each transcript, then carried into a committee where every applicant's name is read aloud, any officer can call a file back and ask why it was denied, and students can be pulled back into contention on that question. The scale makes that remarkable: a pool of 60,646, read name by name.
The data on this page describes outcomes; the process producing them is a room of people building and contesting cases, one file at a time.
Every name of every applicant was read in committee. Anybody could call them back and say, hey, why did you deny this student? We could truly say, and look everybody in the eyes, that every name gets read through a committee.
Kimberley L.
Former Stanford Admissions Officer
What those readers reward, and why files that clear every academic bar still miss, comes down to how an application is built. And the 2,302 who got through shared an academic profile of their own: nearly three-quarters with a perfect GPA, against score ranges about to be reset by the return of required testing.