What is the Bates acceptance rate?

Bates's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 9,660 first-year applicants and 1,433 admitted, an acceptance rate of 14.8%. It was 13.3% in 2024-25 and 13.0% in 2023-24.

What is the Bates early decision acceptance rate?

In 2025-26, 318 of 949 early decision applicants were admitted (33.5%), against 14.8% 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 Bates students have?

In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1325 to 1510, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 13.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.

How many students get off the Bates waitlist?

In 2025-26, Bates offered 2,103 applicants a place on the waitlist; 795 accepted one, and 39 were admitted from it.

Official acceptance rates

Bates acceptance rate and admissions statistics

Bates admitted 1,433 of 9,660 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 14.8%. 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 Bates counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.

Bates acceptance rate by year

Common Data Set section C1, first-year applicants
CDS year	Applied	Admitted	Acceptance rate	Enrolled	Yield
2025-26	9,660	1,433	14.8%	493	34.4%
2024-25	10,027	1,334	13.3%	488	36.6%
2023-24	8,937	1,164	13.0%	505	43.4%

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 Bates

Common Data Set section C21
CDS year	ED applicants	ED admitted	ED admit rate	Overall rate
2025-26	949	318	33.5%	14.8%
2024-25	1,128	306	27.1%	13.3%
2023-24	810	338	41.7%	13.0%

Bates waitlist

Common Data Set section C2
CDS year	Offered a place	Accepted a place	Admitted from it	Admitted, of those who accepted
2025-26	2,103	795	39	4.9%
2024-25	1,940	883	34	3.9%
2023-24	2,198	855	68	8.0%

Bates 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	1325 to 1510	31 to 34	13.0%
2024-25	1410 to 1490	30 to 33	15.0%
2023-24	1370 to 1475	31 to 33	18.0%

What Bates 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 Bates rated in the top two tiers.

2025-26: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities; Important: First generation, Geographical residence, State residency, Level of applicant's interest
2024-25: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities; Important: First generation, Geographical residence, State residency, Level of applicant's interest
2023-24: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities; Important: First generation, Geographical residence, State residency, Level of applicant's interest

Bates testing policy for students applying in 2026-27

Test optional. SAT and ACT have been optional since a 1984 faculty vote. Bates superscores both tests if they are submitted. An English-proficiency test is required when English is neither the native language nor the language of school instruction.

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

How these numbers were read

Enrolled is the C1 total (493 for 2025-26 and 488 for 2024-25). The 2023-24 document prints no year header; its year follows its Fall 2023 cohort.

Bates acceptance rate questions

What is the Bates acceptance rate?: Bates's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 9,660 first-year applicants and 1,433 admitted, an acceptance rate of 14.8%. It was 13.3% in 2024-25 and 13.0% in 2023-24.
What is the Bates early decision acceptance rate?: In 2025-26, 318 of 949 early decision applicants were admitted (33.5%), against 14.8% 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 Bates students have?: In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1325 to 1510, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 13.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
How many students get off the Bates waitlist?: In 2025-26, Bates offered 2,103 applicants a place on the waitlist; 795 accepted one, and 39 were admitted from it.
Does Bates require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?: Test optional. SAT and ACT have been optional since a 1984 faculty vote. Bates superscores both tests if they are submitted. An English-proficiency test is required when English is neither the native language nor the language of school instruction.

Applying to Bates?

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

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