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Ivy Decision Day Full Breakdown

We just survived Ivy Decision Day, where six of America’s eight colleges in the athletic conference known as the Ivy League—that’s correct, it is an athletic conference—released their decisions for the class of 2029. That’s the high school class of 2025, who will be heading off to college next fall.

I thought today would be a good day to look back at last year’s stats, because this year’s stats are going to take another year to fully come out. But to give us an idea of some context for what we’re looking at when we look at the acceptances we’ve just seen.

So, last year, Cornell accepted 5,139 students. That’s an 8.4% acceptance rate. 3,525 of those students did decide to enroll, at a 69% yield.

Last year UPenn accepted 3,508 students. That’s a 5.4% acceptance rate, 2,396 of whom decided to attend, at a 68% yield.

Dartmouth last year accepted 1,710 students, a 5.4% acceptance rate as well. 1,184 of those students did decide to enroll, at a 69% yield.

And Brown accepted last year 2,521 students, a 5.2% acceptance rate, 1,725 of whom decided to attend, at a 68% yield.

So, all four colleges we’ve talked about so far are a 68% or 69% yield, so, pretty typical. But now things are going to ratchet up a bit because Princeton last year accepted 1,868 students at a 4.6% acceptance rate, 1,411 of whom decided to attend.

That is a 76% yield. Why such a big jump? Because US News and World Report called Princeton the number one college in America, both this year and last year, and that kind of thing will increase the yield.

Columbia accepted 2,319 students last year at a 3.9% acceptance rate, 1,499 of whom decided to enroll. That is a 65% yield.

Yale last year accepted 2,146 students, a 3.7% acceptance rate, 1,554 of whom decided to enroll, a 72% yield.

And of course, Harvard had 1,937 acceptances last year. A 3.6% acceptance rate, 1,627 of whom decided to go, with the highest yield of 84%. Why? Because it’s Harvard.

Now, I need you to understand that although 21,148 acceptances were sent last year, only 14,921 students entered the first-year class.

And why wouldn’t that number be higher, right? Why would it only be a 70.5% yield? Well, that’s for a number of reasons. First of all, a number of the students who were accepted were accepted to more than one, but only chose to go to one. Second of all, some of these colleges may have accepted students but not given them enough money to afford to go there. So, students may have chosen more affordable colleges offering them bigger scholarships.

And, very important to understand that while there were 21,148 acceptances at the Ivys last year, there are only 20,318 high schools in America, and 11 to 17% of each of these colleges’ freshman classes are made up of international students. Which means there are fewer acceptances than there are valedictorians, let alone salutatorians and other top-achieving students, let alone the athletes the coaches want, and the students who are legacy applicants or those whose parents work at the universities—or for whatever other reason these colleges decided to prioritize and accept them.

So, please keep that in mind as you are either celebrating or mourning Ivy Decision Day. Understand that whatever your case, you’re not alone. You’re in good company. And there are other great colleges in America, in different athletic conferences, where you can also go to college, get a great education, and have a successful life.

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at 732-556-8220. We are here to help.

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