Methodology

How the acceptance rate is calculated

The acceptance rate is admitted ÷ applicants for first-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students, as reported to the federal IPEDS Admissions (ADM) survey. Yield is enrolled ÷ admitted. Gender-specific rates use the same formula on the men / women counts the school reported.

Which schools get a page

To avoid thin or misleading pages, a college is published only if it has:

data for the 2022–23 collection year or newer;
at least three years of usable admissions data; and
at least 500 applicants in the latest year (relaxed to 200 for a small set of very high-demand schools).

Schools that fall short are excluded entirely rather than shown with an unreliable rate.

Small samples and estimated figures

Where a published school had between 500 and 999 applicants, we flag the rate as a small sample, since it can swing sharply year to year. Some figures in IPEDS are estimated (imputed) by NCES when a school did not report them; any page relying on an imputed headline figure carries a footnote marker (†).

Trends and score bands

Trend charts and tables use every ADM year available for the school (the survey began with the 2014–15 collection). SAT/ACT figures are the 25th–75th percentile ("middle 50%") ranges of enrolled students, alongside the share who submitted each test.

What IPEDS does not provide

IPEDS admissions data does not break acceptance rates down by residency (in-state vs out-of-state) or by application round (Early Decision vs Regular). Those figures come only from schools' own Common Data Set reports and are not part of these pages today.