What is the Claremont McKenna acceptance rate?

Claremont McKenna's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 6,939 first-year applicants and 655 admitted, an acceptance rate of 9.4%. It was 9.6% in 2024-25 and 11.1% in 2023-24.

What is the Claremont McKenna early decision acceptance rate?

In 2025-26, 216 of 978 early decision applicants were admitted (22.1%), against 9.4% 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 Claremont McKenna students have?

In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1480 to 1540, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 34.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.

How many students get off the Claremont McKenna waitlist?

In 2025-26, Claremont McKenna offered 711 applicants a place on the waitlist; 469 accepted one, and 61 were admitted from it.

Official acceptance rates

Claremont McKenna acceptance rate and admissions statistics

Claremont McKenna admitted 655 of 6,939 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 9.4%. 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 Claremont McKenna counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.

Claremont McKenna acceptance rate by year

Common Data Set section C1, first-year applicants
CDS year	Applied	Admitted	Acceptance rate	Enrolled	Yield
2025-26	6,939	655	9.4%	335	51.1%
2024-25	6,529	626	9.6%	337	53.8%
2023-24	5,799	645	11.1%	321	49.8%

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 Claremont McKenna

Common Data Set section C21
CDS year	ED applicants	ED admitted	ED admit rate	Overall rate
2025-26	978	216	22.1%	9.4%
2024-25	967	226	23.4%	9.6%
2023-24	816	202	24.8%	11.1%

Claremont McKenna waitlist

Common Data Set section C2
CDS year	Offered a place	Accepted a place	Admitted from it	Admitted, of those who accepted
2025-26	711	469	61	13.0%
2024-25	997	621	33	5.3%
2023-24	591	396	44	11.1%

Claremont McKenna 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	1480 to 1540	33 to 35	34.0%
2024-25	1490 to 1550	33 to 35	26.0%
2023-24	1470 to 1530	33 to 35	29.0%

What Claremont McKenna 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 Claremont McKenna rated in the top two tiers.

2025-26: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities; Important: Interview, Talent/ability
2024-25: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities; Important: Interview, Talent/ability
2023-24: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities; Important: Interview, Talent/ability

Claremont McKenna testing policy for students applying in 2026-27

Test-optional for applicants through the Fall 2027 entry term (covers 2026-27 applicants); CMC says it will return to test-required for the Fall 2028 application cycle. Non-submitters are not disadvantaged for admission or merit scholarships, but must submit scores after enrolling, for research use only.

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

How these numbers were read

The 2025-26 document reports Fall 2025 data, though some footers still carry the 2024-25 label. The 2025-26 totals are the sums of the sex rows, which match the residency table; 2023-24 totals are the residency totals.

Claremont McKenna acceptance rate questions

What is the Claremont McKenna acceptance rate?: Claremont McKenna's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 6,939 first-year applicants and 655 admitted, an acceptance rate of 9.4%. It was 9.6% in 2024-25 and 11.1% in 2023-24.
What is the Claremont McKenna early decision acceptance rate?: In 2025-26, 216 of 978 early decision applicants were admitted (22.1%), against 9.4% 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 Claremont McKenna students have?: In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1480 to 1540, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 34.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
How many students get off the Claremont McKenna waitlist?: In 2025-26, Claremont McKenna offered 711 applicants a place on the waitlist; 469 accepted one, and 61 were admitted from it.
Does Claremont McKenna require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?: Test-optional for applicants through the Fall 2027 entry term (covers 2026-27 applicants); CMC says it will return to test-required for the Fall 2028 application cycle. Non-submitters are not disadvantaged for admission or merit scholarships, but must submit scores after enrolling, for research use only.

Applying to Claremont McKenna?

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

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