Ivy League Admissions Results for the Class of 2023

For many 12th graders, the arrival of spring doesn’t just mean the end of high school. It also means college acceptance season, and, for unfortunately most students, college rejection season too. The fact is that it’s extremely rare for any student to get into every college on his or her college list, especially since these lists are supposed to represent a variety of selectivity.

At the most selective schools in the country, dozens of perfect GPAs and SAT scores get rejected each year, and acceptance rates overall continue to decline. This was almost entirely the case for the Ivy League as each elite university combed through applicants to select the members of the class of 2023. Still, many hopefuls were elated to receive acceptances on Ivy Day. In this post, we’ll take a closer look at admissions statistics for the Ivy League class of 2023.

Application Trends

Overall, applications to the Ivy League are on the rise. Brown and Dartmouth saw the steepest inclines in applicants this year, with Brown receiving 9.13% more applicants than last year, and Dartmouth receiving 7.34% more. All Ivy League schools saw an increase over applicants for the class of 2022, with the exception of Princeton and Cornell, both of which had seen steep increases the prior year. Overall, the Ivy League received 1.32% more applicants than it did last year, with a total of 311,948 applications submitted. This represents a record high number of Ivy League applications.

A significant percentage of these applications was submitted through early action or early decision programs. Of the total applications received, nearly 14% arrived through early action or early decision for a total of 42,747 early applications.

Admissions Results for the Ivy League Class of 2023

Brown University

Brown set records this year for both total applicants and acceptance rates. Total applicants peaked at over 38,000 for the class  of 2023, while the acceptance rate dipped to a record low of 6.6%. This acceptance rate is over half a percent below the previous year’s record of 7.24%.

The early decision acceptance rate at Brown has historically been much higher than the regular decision acceptance rate, and this year was no different. 18.18% of students who applied early were accepted, compared to only 5.17% of students who applied regular decision.

Columbia

Columbia held on to its coveted spot as the second most selective Ivy League school this year. It received record applicants this year, topping 42,000. This marked an increase of nearly 6% from the previous year and continued an upward trend that’s lasted for five years. The acceptance rate at Columbia reached 5.14%, also a record.

The class of 2023 continues another pattern at Columbia of higher acceptance rates for early applications. This year, 14.6% of early applications were accepted, while just 4.04% of regular applications received an acceptance letter.

Cornell

After having received a record number of applicants for the class of 2022, Cornell saw a slight decline in application numbers this year, down about 4%. Still, the acceptance rate continues to hover just over 10%, with 10.55% of applicants receiving an acceptance this year, compared to last year’s acceptance rate of 10.3%. This is the highest acceptance rate in the Ivy League.

Like most of its Ivy League counterparts, Cornell admits early applicants at a higher rate than regular decision applicants. This year, 22.65% of early applications were accepted, compared to just 8.82% of regular decision applications.

Dartmouth

Dartmouth College received over 23,600 applications this year, marking an increase of 7.34% over last year. This is especially impressive given that last year’s numbers had topped those from the class of 2021 by nearly 10%. Of the total students who applied to Dartmouth, 7.93% were accepted. This is the first time in history that the acceptance rate at Dartmouth has dipped below 8%.

That being said, the acceptance rate was much higher for early applicants. Over 23% of early applicants were accepted, although only 6.15% of regular decision applicants go into Dartmouth’s class of 2023.

Harvard

Harvard continues its run as the most selective school in the Ivy League. This year it received over 43,000 applications from Harvard hopefuls. This is a record number of applicants and marks the fifth straight year of an expanding applicant pool. Of those who applied, only 4.50% were accepted. This is another record at Harvard with the acceptance rate stopped just slightly below last year’s record of 4.59%.

Applying early decision to Harvard can help to boost your chances. 13.44 of early applicants were accepted, compared to a shockingly low 2.79% of regular decision applicants.

UPenn

UPenn continues to increase in popularity, as it has done consistently in recent years. This year it received a record number of applications just shy of 50,000, the most received by any single Ivy League school. This marks only a slight increase of 1.07% over last year’s applicants, but continues a eight year streak of steadily increases. This year only 7.44% of applicants were accepted, the first time acceptance rates have dipped below 8%.

Students who applied early to UPenn saw higher rates of acceptance, as is common in the Ivy League. This year, early applicants were accepted at a rate of 17.99%, much higher than the regular decision acceptance rate of just 5.46%.

Princeton

Princeton experienced a slight dip in popularity this year after a streak of five years of steadily increasing application numbers. This year, Princeton received 32,804 applications, marking a 7.25% decrease from the class of 2022. The admission rate was fairly steady though, with 5.78% of applications being accepted this year compared to 5.49% last year.

Students who apply early to Princeton are generally accepted at a higher rate than regular decision applicants, but the difference in acceptance rates is less pronounced than at many other Ivy League schools. This year early applicants to Princeton were accepted at a rate of 13.93%, compared to 4.19% of regular decision applicants.

Yale

Yale has steadily increased its application numbers over the past 8 years with only one year (2019) seeing a slight decrease from the year before. This year Yale received 36,843 applications, an increase of 4.35% from the previous year. Overall, applicants were accepted at a rate of 5.91%.

Like Princeton, Yale also accepted early applications at a higher rate than regular applications, but the difference at Yale is the least significant of all the Ivy League schools. This year, early applicants were accepted at a rate of 13.19% while regular decision applicants were accepted at a rate of 4.49%.

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