The homepage chart summarizes a decade of compression at eight highly selective schools. This page is the citeable record: first-time, first-year applicant and admit counts from each school's own Common Data Set, fact book, or admissions fact sheet. Retrieved 11 September 2026. No third-party aggregator is used as a source.
Last retrieved: 11 September 2026
Acceptance rate here is admitted first-time, first-year students divided by first-time, first-year applicants, using the school's published counts. Rates in the table are calculated from those counts and rounded to one decimal place.
| School | Baseline cycle | Applied | Admitted | Rate | Recent cycle | Applied | Admitted | Rate | Relative change |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard College | Class of 2020 (Fact Book) | 39,041 | 2,110 | 5.4% | Class of 2029 (Fact Book) | 47,893 | 2,003 | 4.2% | −23% |
| Stanford University | CDS 2015-16 / Fall 2015 | 42,497 | 2,140 | 5.0% | CDS 2024-25 / Fall 2024 | 57,326 | 2,067 | 3.6% | −28% |
| University of Pennsylvania | Fall 2015 (FY15 report) | 37,268 | 3,787 | 10.2% | Fall 2025 / Class of 2029 (Facts) | 72,544 | 3,570 | 4.9% | −52% |
| Williams College | CDS 2016-17 / Fall 2016 | 6,985 | 1,230 | 17.6% | Class of 2029 (Fast Facts) | 15,520 | 1,336 | 8.6% | −51% |
| Amherst College | CDS 2015-16 / Fall 2015 | 8,568 | 1,210 | 14.1% | CDS 2025-26 / Fall 2025 | 15,819 | 1,222 | 7.7% | −45% |
| Swarthmore College | CDS 2015-16 / Fall 2015 | 7,818 | 976 | 12.5% | Class of 2029 fact sheet | 12,995 | 965 | 7.4% | −41% |
| Middlebury College | CDS 2015-16 / Fall 2015 | 8,891 | 1,551 | 17.4% | CDS 2024-25 / Fall 2024 | 12,540 | 1,348 | 10.7% | −38% |
| Bowdoin College | CDS 2015-16 / Fall 2015 | 6,790 | 1,010 | 14.9% | CDS 2025-26 / Fall 2025 | 14,045 | 957 | 6.8% | −54% |
Unweighted mean of the eight relative changes: 41.5%. Harvard's Fact Book also reports a Class of 2026 trough of 61,221 applicants and 1,984 admits (3.2%). Using that trough instead of Class of 2029 would raise Harvard's relative decline and the eight-school mean; this table uses the dated cycles listed above, compiled 11 September 2026.
Each row links the exact publication used. Retrieval date for every source is 11 September 2026 unless noted.
Office of Institutional Research & Analytics, Fact Book: College Admissions, last updated 7 January 2026. Class of 2020: 39,041 applicants, 2,110 admitted (5.4%). Class of 2026: 61,221 / 1,984 (3.2%). Class of 2029: 47,893 / 2,003 (4.2%). The homepage uses Class of 2029 (4.2%) as the recent endpoint, rather than the Class of 2026 trough. CDS filings are indexed at Harvard Common Data Set.
Institutional Research & Decision Support, Stanford Common Data Set. CDS 2015-16 C1: 22,831 men + 19,666 women applied (42,497); 1,073 + 1,067 admitted (2,140). CDS 2024-25 C1: 29,602 + 27,724 applied (57,326); 1,015 + 1,052 admitted (2,067). Files are the official Drive links published on that IR&DS page.
Baseline: Annual Financial Report, Fiscal Year 2015 — 37,268 applications and 3,787 admitted for the freshman class entering fall 2015. Recent: University of Pennsylvania, Facts, Undergraduate Admissions (Fall 2025) — 72,544 applications and 3,570 offered admission to the Class of 2029. Penn rounds that recent rate to “5 percent”; 3,570 / 72,544 is 4.9%. CDS PDFs are listed at Penn IRA Common Data Set (Box downloads; the counts above are taken from the public HTML/PDF pages, not from a third-party summary).
Baseline: Williams College Common Data Set 2016-2017 C1 (Fall 2016): 3,313 + 3,672 applied (6,985); 601 + 629 admitted (1,230). The live IR host returned HTTP 403 from this research environment; the same official PDF was read via the Internet Archive copy of that Williams URL. Recent: Office of Communications, Fast Facts About Williams, April 2026, Class of 2029 — 15,520 applied, 1,336 admitted, 8.6%. The homepage uses this Class of 2029 figure (8.6%).
CDS section C, published on Amherst's Common Data Sets index. 2015-16 C. First-Year Admission: 3,882 + 4,686 applied (8,568); 583 + 627 admitted (1,210). 2025-26 C. First-Time, First-Year Admission: 15,819 applied and 1,222 admitted (residency totals on the same page). Amherst's 2024-25 C section reports 13,743 applied and 1,238 admitted (9.0%); both the homepage and this table use the newer 2025-26 filing (7.7%). Index: Amherst Common Data Sets.
Baseline: Swarthmore CDS 2015-2016 C1, from the college's institutional-research PDF (Internet Archive copy of the official file): 3,365 + 4,453 applied (7,818); 470 + 506 admitted (976), labeled 12.5% on the filing. Recent: Swarthmore Admissions, Class of 2029 fact sheet (May 2025) — 12,995 applied, 965 admitted, 7.43%. CDS archive: Swarthmore Common Data Set. The homepage uses this Class of 2029 figure, rounded to 7.4%.
CDS 2015-2016 C1: 3,702 + 5,189 applied (8,891); 741 + 810 admitted (1,551), 17% on the filing; 1,551 / 8,891 is 17.4%. CDS 2024-2025 C1: 12,540 applied, 1,348 admitted (1,348 / 12,540 = 10.75%, shown as 10.7%). Index: Middlebury Historical Data / Common Data Sets.
Office of Institutional Research, Analytics, and Consulting, Common Data Set. 2015-16 C1: 2,996 + 3,794 applied (6,790); 476 + 534 admitted (1,010). 2025-26 C1 form fields: 14,045 applied, 957 admitted. The homepage 6.8% recent figure matches this 2025-26 filing (Class of 2029).
This page documents published selectivity. It is not a prediction about any applicant, and it is not a claim that a Vellum seminar changes an admissions decision.