During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, Northwestern University accepted only a sliver of the students who applied – 7.69%, landing firmly in the single-digit acceptance rate range. This number is often shocking to parents, who remember the ~40% acceptance rates in the 90s. But that top-line statistic doesn’t actually explain very much on its own, or how Northwestern became so competitive. While Northwestern does make some admissions information public, getting a meaningful understanding of what’s going on requires a more careful, layered analysis (and some math!). Thankfully, every year, we dig into the data to help our students see the bigger picture and approach the process with a clearer strategy and expectations.

The University of Chicago is cut-throat, and not just as an academic environment. They hold their statistics close to the chest, and, as of this writing, have not released the acceptance rate for the Class of 2029. The Acceptance rate for the Class of 2028, however, was a measly 4.5%. The university also offers nearly no visibility into the University of Chicago waitlist, as they don’t share the waitlist length, number of students accepted, or overall statistics in the Common Data Set, the report most universities use to share their waitlist outcomes.  

Over a little more than a decade, Barnard has transformed from a lesser-known all-women’s backdoor into a Columbia University degree into a prestigious college in its own right with the low acceptance rate to match (about 10%). Throughout this transformation, the college has always offered an outstanding education and community steps from the Columbia gates — it’s just super competitive now.  

During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, the University of Virginia admitted only a relatively small share of its applicant pool, with an overall acceptance rate of 16.81%. That headline number, on its own, doesn’t actually tell you very much. How is it calculated? What pressures are shaping it year over year? UVA does make portions of its admissions data public, but getting real clarity requires a closer look beneath the surface. That kind of deeper analysis is exactly what we do each year to help students approach selective admissions with clear eyes and a smart, intentional strategy.

Dartmouth is the rural Ivy. Located in Hanover, New Hampshire, a small town with classic college vibes, Dartmouth combines exceptional academics with the quintessential college experience that so many students crave. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 6%.

Stanford University is exceptionally difficult to get into, even for truly outstanding applicants. There is no number of awards, GPA, test scores, or exceptional extracurriculars that make an applicant a shoo-in for Stanford. It’s a stretch for everyone. They delay the release of the most recent admissions statistics, but we do have numbers from 2024. For the Class of 2028, the acceptance rate was only 3.61%.

MIT, or the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, may well be the most famous schools in the United States and one of the most well-known globally. The acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 4.6%, and has held steady between 3% and 5% in recent years.

In the 2024-2025 admissions cycle, MIT’s acceptance rate dipped to 4.55%. While not their lowest ever, it reflects a growing trend of this prestigious school’s acceptance rate trending ever downwards. But what does a 4.55% acceptance rate actually mean? MIT, like many schools, publishes raw admissions data in the Common Data Set (CDS), which is used by publishers such as U.S. News & World Report, the College Board, and Peterson’s to compile their rankings. Fortunately, it also provides us with a wealth of knowledge we can draw on to help our clients develop a data-driven strategy.