Cornell acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Cornell admitted 6,077 of 72,523 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 8.4%. 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 Cornell counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Cornell acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 72,523 | 6,077 | 8.4% | 3,827 | 63.0% |
| 2024-25 | 65,612 | 5,516 | 8.4% | 3,525 | 63.9% |
| 2023-24 | 67,846 | 5,358 | 7.9% | 3,537 | 66.0% |
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 Cornell
Cornell waitlist
Cornell SAT and ACT scores
What Cornell 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 Cornell rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Class rank, Academic GPA
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Class rank, Academic GPA
- 2023-24
- Very important: None recorded
- Important: None recorded
Cornell testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test required. Cornell has reinstated standardized testing: first-year applicants must submit SAT or ACT scores. Self-reported scores are accepted, and enrolling students then send official scores.
From Cornell’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
The 2025-26 C9 gives the number of students who submitted the SAT (1,639) but not the percent, so that cell reads Not published. The 2023-24 C7 table is blank, so no factors are listed for that year.
Cornell acceptance rate questions
- What is the Cornell acceptance rate?
- Cornell's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 72,523 first-year applicants and 6,077 admitted, an acceptance rate of 8.4%. It was 8.4% in 2024-25 and 7.9% in 2023-24.
- What is the Cornell early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 1,889 of 10,057 early decision applicants were admitted (18.8%), against 8.4% 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 Cornell students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1490 to 1550, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. The share who submitted an SAT score is not published.
- How many students get off the Cornell waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Cornell offered 9,720 applicants a place on the waitlist; 6,598 accepted one, and 254 were admitted from it.
- Does Cornell require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test required. Cornell has reinstated standardized testing: first-year applicants must submit SAT or ACT scores. Self-reported scores are accepted, and enrolling students then send official scores.
Applying to Cornell?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Cornell says it weighs.
Source: Cornell Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Cornell. All official acceptance rates