What is the Amherst acceptance rate?

Amherst's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 15,819 first-year applicants and 1,222 admitted, an acceptance rate of 7.7%. It was 9.0% in 2024-25 and 9.8% in 2023-24.

What is the Amherst early decision acceptance rate?

In 2025-26, 216 of 971 early decision applicants were admitted (22.2%), against 7.7% of all applicants. Early decision applicants are a different pool who commit to enroll, so the two rates are not a like-for-like comparison.

What SAT scores do Amherst students have?

In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1470 to 1540, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 40.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.

How many students get off the Amherst waitlist?

In 2025-26, Amherst offered 1,294 applicants a place on the waitlist; 740 accepted one, and 44 were admitted from it.

Official acceptance rates

Amherst acceptance rate and admissions statistics

Amherst admitted 1,222 of 15,819 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 7.7%. Every number below comes from the college’s own Common Data Set, each year linked to its document; a figure the college leaves blank says “Not published”, and the notes at the foot of the page say where a total is the sum of rows the college printed.

What did admitted applicants have? How to get into Amherst counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.

Amherst acceptance rate by year

Common Data Set section C1, first-year applicants
CDS year	Applied	Admitted	Acceptance rate	Enrolled	Yield
2025-26	15,819	1,222	7.7%	485	39.7%
2024-25	13,743	1,238	9.0%	480	38.8%
2023-24	12,727	1,250	9.8%	488	39.0%

Acceptance rate is admitted divided by applied; yield is enrolled divided by admitted. Both are computed by Aristo Scholars from the two counts printed beside them.

Early decision at Amherst

Common Data Set section C21
CDS year	ED applicants	ED admitted	ED admit rate	Overall rate
2025-26	971	216	22.2%	7.7%
2024-25	735	216	29.4%	9.0%
2023-24	682	185	27.1%	9.8%

Amherst waitlist

Common Data Set section C2
CDS year	Offered a place	Accepted a place	Admitted from it	Admitted, of those who accepted
2025-26	1,294	740	44	5.9%
2024-25	1,105	623	8	1.3%
2023-24	924	599	47	7.8%

Amherst SAT and ACT scores

Common Data Set section C9, enrolled first-year students who submitted scores
CDS year	SAT 25th to 75th	ACT 25th to 75th	Submitted an SAT
2025-26	1470 to 1540	33 to 35	40.0%
2024-25	1500 to 1560	33 to 35	39.0%
2023-24	1480 to 1550	31 to 35	38.0%

What Amherst says matters in admission

In section C7 each college rates its own admission factors as Very Important, Important, Considered or Not Considered. These are the factors Amherst rated in the top two tiers.

2025-26: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability; Important: Class rank, Character/personal qualities, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
2024-25: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability; Important: Class rank, Character/personal qualities, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
2023-24: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Standardized test scores, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability; Important: Class rank, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience

Amherst testing policy for students applying in 2026-27

Test optional: SAT or ACT is an optional part of the application for first-year and transfer applicants, domestic and international. Self-reported scores are accepted and superscored.

From Amherst’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.

How these numbers were read

Amherst publishes its Common Data Set by section; the links are to each year's Section C. The 2025-26 C9 header reads 'Fall 2024', but its scores differ from the 2024-25 document and are shown as printed.

Amherst acceptance rate questions

What is the Amherst acceptance rate?: Amherst's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 15,819 first-year applicants and 1,222 admitted, an acceptance rate of 7.7%. It was 9.0% in 2024-25 and 9.8% in 2023-24.
What is the Amherst early decision acceptance rate?: In 2025-26, 216 of 971 early decision applicants were admitted (22.2%), against 7.7% of all applicants. Early decision applicants are a different pool who commit to enroll, so the two rates are not a like-for-like comparison.
What SAT scores do Amherst students have?: In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1470 to 1540, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 40.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
How many students get off the Amherst waitlist?: In 2025-26, Amherst offered 1,294 applicants a place on the waitlist; 740 accepted one, and 44 were admitted from it.
Does Amherst require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?: Test optional: SAT or ACT is an optional part of the application for first-year and transfer applicants, domestic and international. Self-reported scores are accepted and superscored.

Applying to Amherst?

An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Amherst says it weighs.

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Source: Amherst Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Amherst. All official acceptance rates