Seniors: There's still time to get expert guidance on your college applications!
Contact Us Today

Updated: Wednesday, November 27, 2024

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%
Auburn University No waitlist No waitlist No waitlist
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 Unknown Unknown Unknown
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 3,372 123 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 1,188 3 0.25%
Hamilton College 1,249 41 3.28%
Harvard University Unknown 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 1,748 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 558 32 5.73%
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 Unknown
Oberlin College Unknown Unknown Unknown
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 No waitlist
Trinity College 990 10 1.01%
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 Florida No waitlist No waitlist No waitlist
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 Southern California No waitlist No waitlist No waitlist
University of Texas – Austin No waitlist No waitlist No waitlist
University of Vermont 2,415 84 3.48%
University of Virginia 5,114 320 6.26%
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 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.

Get the IvyWise Newsletter

Related Posts