Looking for a way to enhance admission odds without obligating yourself to attend?  Here's a list of colleges with early action admission rates that are at least 50% higher than their regular decision admission rates.  

Unlike Early Decision, Early Action is non-binding, so it nearly always works to your advantage.  And as the list shows, this advantage can be meaningful if you're a competitive applicant...all for simply applying 45-60 days earlier than normal.  

With most early action deadlines occurring in early November, the time is now to take a closer look. 

Looking for a way to enhance admission odds? Here's a list of schools with early decision admission rates that are at least twice as high as their regular decision admission rates.  

Because Early Decision is a binding commitment, it only makes sense if you're a competitive applicant, affordability isn't an issue, and you're absolutely certain it's the school for you. But as the list shows, there can be a meaningful advantage in applying this way if you are.  For example, at Bucknell University, roughly 60% of the Class of 2025 was admitted through Early Decision, and the admission rate was 73% vs. 31% for those who applied via Regular Decision.  Or at Bates College in Maine, roughly 80% of the incoming class was admitted through Early Decision and the admission rate was 46% vs. 10% for those who applied via Regular Decision.  These are differences too big to ignore.

Note: most early decision deadlines occur in early November, so the time is now to consider if it makes sense for you. Click here for more information about early admission, and here to find out how College Kickstart can help you take full advantage. 

For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2027 waitlist notification dates and status where available.  

To get a sense for what's happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Fall 2022 waitlist statistics from 101 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 3 percent year over year from 26,000 for the Class of 2025 to 20,000 for the Class of 2026

• On average, 19 percent of Fall 2022 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, unchanged from the previous year

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 8 percent of Fall 2022 enrollments, down slightly from 9 percent for Fall 2021

• 62 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for Fall 2022 (vs. 57 percent for the Fall 2021)

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the preliminary Fall 2022 admissions data released recently by the University of California and we thought it would be helpful to summarize it and share our key findings.  

Overall freshman admission rates fell systemwide from 65 perent to 60 percent based on a 3.5 percent increase in applications and 5.1 percent decrease in acceptances. If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there continues to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable rates at a couple of UC campuses.

Click on Continue Reading for the details.

For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2026 waitlist notification dates and status where available.  

To get a sense for what's happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Class of 2025 waitlist statistics from 120 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 46 percent year over year from 61,000 for the Class of 2024 to 33,000 for the Class of 2025

• On average, 15 percent of Class of 2025 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, down from 32 percent in for the Class of 2024

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 13 percent of Class of 2025 enrollments, down from 27 percent for the Class of 2024

• 61 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for the Class of 2025 (vs. 28 percent for the Class of 2024)

As expected, surge in waitlist activity brought on by the pandemic to more normal levels with the Class of 2025, as institutions worked through a surge in gap year deferrals, vaccinations kicked into gear and students were finally able to return to campus. We anticipate waitlist activity to continue to moderate for the Class of 2026.

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Washington University in St. Louis announced it admitted a total of 3,598 applicants to the Class of 2026, resulting in an overall acceptanc rate of 10 percent.  

Click here for the news release.

Wesleyan University announced it admitted 13.9 percent of applicants to the Class of 2026.  

A total of 2,013 students were admitted from a pool of 14,521 applications.

Click here for the article.

Middlebury announced today that it admitted 15 percent of applicants to the Class of 2026.

A total of 13,028 applications were received, up 9 percent from the previous year.   

Click here for the news release.

Hamilton College announced it admitted 11.8 percent of applicants to the Class of 2026.  

A total of 9,899 applications were received, up six percent from the previous year. 

Click here for the news article.

Dartmouth announced today that it accepted 1,767 applicants to the Class of 2026.  

Applications totaled 28,336 for the year, resulting in an overall acceptance rate of 6.2 percent.

Click here for the news release.

Yale announced today that it admitted 2,234 applicants to the Class of 2026.

A total of 50,015 applications were received this year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 4.46 percent. 

Click here for the article.

Brown announced today that it admitted 2,546 applicants to the Class of 2026.  

A total of 50,649 applications were received for the year, resulting in an overall admission rate of 5 percent.

Click here for the news article.

Harvard announced it admitted 1,954 applicants to the Class of 2025.  

A total of 61,220 applications were received, up nearly 7 percent, resulting in an overall admit rate of 3.19 percent. 

Click here for the news article.

Columbia University announced it admitted 3.73 percent of applicants to the Class of 2026.

2,253 applicants were admitted from a total pool of 60,377 applications.

Click here for details.

Duke announced today that it offered regular admission to 2,230 students to the Class of 2026.

A total of 2,120 regular decision applicants were admitted from a pool of 45,941 applicants, as well as an additional 110 students who applied early decision and were deferred.

Click here for the article.