Waitlist Admission Rates
For waitlisted students, it can be hard to judge just how much of a chance they have of getting accepted off the waitlist. Data around waitlist acceptances can be scarce, especially as waitlists at top colleges grow and more and more schools become less transparent about their admissions statistics. The college counselors at IvyWise, however, have dug into the data and have some insight into waitlist admission rates.
What Are My Chances of Getting Off the Waitlist?
According to recent data from the National Association of College Admissions Counseling, colleges on average admit 20% of students off the waitlist. At the most selective institutions, that figure was 7%. In reality, since waitlist decisions can come as late as weeks before the start of the fall semester, families usually don’t have a good sense of how many students are admitted off waitlists each year.
Recent Waitlist Admission Rates
Waitlist admission rates can vary from school to school and even year to year, especially as colleges have seen record-breaking application numbers over the past few years. Here is a list of colleges and universities and their waitlist admit rates for the class of 2027 — the most recent, complete data that schools currently have available.
| School | Waitlisted | Accepted from Waitlist | Waitlist Acceptance Rate |
| American University | 1,366 | 491 | 35.94% |
| Amherst College | 599 | 47 | 7.85% |
| Babson College | 1,171 | 39 | 3.33% |
| Barnard College | 1,260 | 173 | 13.73% |
| Bates College | 855 | 68 | 7.95% |
| Baylor University | 910 | 735 | 80.77% |
| Bowdoin College | Unknown | 29 | Unknown |
| Boston University | 8,907 | 34 | 0.38% |
| Brandeis University | 896 | 339 | 37.83% |
| Brown University | Unknown | 73 | Unknown |
| Bucknell University | 1,233 | 1 | 0.08% |
| Caltech | 199 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Carleton College | 356 | 35 | 9.83% |
| Carnegie Mellon University | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Case Western Reserve University | 7,940 | 1,141 | 14.37% |
| Chapman University | 1,473 | 208 | 14.12% |
| Claremont McKenna College | 396 | 44 | 11.11% |
| Clark University | 517 | 101 | 19.54% |
| Clemson University | 4,512 | 1,162 | 25.75% |
| Colgate University | 1,446 | 71 | 4.91% |
| College of Charleston | 1,302 | 205 | 15.75% |
| College of the Holy Cross | 1,572 | 42 | 2.67% |
| College of William and Mary | 1,918 | 136 | 7.09% |
| Colorado College | 144 | 20 | 13.89% |
| Columbia University | Data not yet released | Data not yet released | Data not yet released |
| Cornell University | 6,166 | 362 | 5.87% |
| Dartmouth College | 1,606 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Davidson College | 710 | 14 | 1.97% |
| Denison University | 296 | 24 | 8.11% |
| DePaul University | 254 | 98 | 38.58% |
| Elon University | 832 | 109 | 13.10% |
| Emory University – Emory Campus | 123 |
3.65% |
|
| Fairfield University | 1,830 | 9 | 0.49% |
| Fordham University | 3,026 | 1,777 | 58.72% |
| Georgia Tech | 4,016 | 60 | 1.49% |
| George Washington University | 2,320 | 14 | 0.60% |
| Georgetown University | 1,611 | 93 | 5.77% |
| Gonzaga University | 324 | 60 | 18.52% |
| Grinnell College |
Data not yet released |
Data not yet released |
Data not yet released |
| Hamilton College | 1,249 | 41 | 3.28% |
| Harvard University | Unknown |
Unknown |
|
| Harvey Mudd College | 406 | 57 | 14.04% |
| Haverford College | 740 | 27 | 3.65% |
| Howard University | Data not yet released | Data not yet released | Data not yet released |
| Indiana University | 1,317 | 1,143 | 86.79% |
| Johns Hopkins University | 71 |
4.06% |
|
| Lafayette College | 870 | 63 | 7.24% |
| Lehigh University | 2,098 | 144 | 6.86% |
| Lewis & Clark College | 143 | 26 | 18.18% |
| Loyola Marymount (CA) | Unknown | 404 | Unknown |
| Loyola University – Chicago | No Waitlist | No Waitlist | No Waitlist |
| Macalester College | 354 | 60 | 16.95% |
| Marquette University | 200 | 70 | 35.00% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Data not yet released | Data not yet released | Data not yet released |
| Miami University – Ohio | Data not yet released | Data not yet released | Data not yet released |
| Middlebury College | 2,734 | 36 | 1.32% |
| New York University | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Northeastern University | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Northwestern University | Unknown | 55 | Data not yet released |
| Olin College of Engineering | 33 | 10 | 30.30% |
| Pepperdine University | 1,122 | 824 | 73.44% |
| Pitzer College | 202 | 10 | 4.95% |
| Pomona College | 587 | 62 | 10.56% |
| Princeton University | 1,032 | 52 | 5.04% |
| Providence College | 1,124 | 199 | 17.70% |
| Reed College | 2,370 | 100 | 4.22% |
| Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute | 1,735 | 74 | 4.27% |
| Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology | 78 | 9 | 11.54% |
| Rice University | 2,802 | 7 | 0.25% |
| Rutgers University, New Brunswick | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Santa Clara University | 2,944 | 367 | 12.47% |
| Sarah Lawrence College | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| Smith College | 659 | 54 | 8.19% |
| Southern Methodist University | 821 | 292 | 35.57% |
| Stanford University | 506 | 76 | 15.02% |
| Swarthmore College | Unknown | 23 | Unknown |
| Syracuse University | 5,933 | 1,647 | 27.76% |
| Texas Christian University | 974 | 273 | 28.03% |
| Texas A&M | No waitlist | No waitlist | N/A |
| Trinity University | 496 | 96 | 19.35% |
| Tufts University | 1,324 | 200 | 15.11% |
| Tulane University | 2,168 | 43 | 1.98% |
| University of California – Berkeley | 4,820 | 1,191 | 24.71% |
| University of California – Davis | 10,898 | 4,387 | 40.26% |
| University of California – Irvine | 3,533 | 2,979 | 84.32% |
| University of California – Los Angeles | 11,725 | 1,400 | 11.94% |
| University of California – San Diego | 19,373 | 2,616 | 13.50% |
| University of Chicago | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| University of Colorado – Boulder | 2,590 | 101 | 3.90% |
| University of Denver | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
| University of Georgia | 1,904 | 739 | 38.81% |
| University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign | 1,881 | 56 | 2.98% |
| University of Maryland, College Park | Unknown | 0 | 0.00% |
| University of Massachusetts – Amherst | 6,628 | 1,701 | 25.66% |
| University of Miami | 7,758 | 215 | 2.77% |
| University of Michigan | 18,321 | 955 | 5.21% |
| University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill | 4,633 | 36 | 0.78% |
| University of Notre Dame | 1,811 | 90 | 4.97% |
| University of Pennsylvania | 2,288 | 40 | 1.75% |
| University of Richmond | 36 | 34 | 94.44% |
| University of Rochester | College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering: 1,191 Eastman School of Music: 85 |
College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering: 185 Eastman School of Music: 35 |
College of Arts, Sciences and Engineering: 15.53% Eastman School of Music: 41.18% |
| University of Virginia | Data not yet released | Data not yet released | Data not yet released |
| University of Washington – Seattle | 4,122 | 2,985 | 72.42% |
| University of Wisconsin – Madison | 7,221 | 4,436 | 61.43% |
| Vanderbilt University | Unknown | 140 | Unknown |
| Vassar College | 501 | 60 | 11.98% |
| Virginia Tech | 7,148 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Wake Forest University | Unknown |
Unknown |
|
| Washington and Lee University | 669 | 0 | 0.00% |
| Washington University in St. Louis | 2,713 | 200 | 7.37% |
| Wellesley College | 1,180 | 19 | 1.61% |
| Wesleyan University | 1,359 | 201 | 14.79% |
| Williams College | 637 | 3 | 0.47% |
| Worcester Polytechnic Institute | 1,130 | 285 | 25.22% |
| Yale University | 899 | 0 |
0.00% |
Not getting into your top-choice or “dream” school can be a big disappointment, but it can narrow the pool and allow you to focus on the other great schools where you were admitted. That said, a sense of uncertainty can come into play when you’re waitlisted, especially with enrollment deadlines right around the corner. At IvyWise we offer Waitlist Consultation services to help you decide what steps to take next to have the best chances of admission and decide where to enroll.
