Denison acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Denison admitted 2,385 of 12,202 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 19.5%. 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 Denison counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Denison acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 12,202 | 2,385 | 19.5% | 623 | 26.1% |
| 2024-25 | 15,012 | 2,611 | 17.4% | 621 | 23.8% |
| 2023-24 | 14,580 | 2,468 | 16.9% | 636 | 25.8% |
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 Denison
Denison waitlist
Denison SAT and ACT scores
What Denison 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 Denison rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations
- Important: Interview, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations
- Important: Interview, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Application essay
- Important: Interview, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability
Denison testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test-optional ('We have a test-optional admission policy'); no harm if scores are omitted, and scores that do not help are ignored; superscores.
From Denison’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
The 2024-25 C1 prints men and women rows with no total, so that year's totals are their sums. 2023-24 totals are the residency totals.
Denison acceptance rate questions
- What is the Denison acceptance rate?
- Denison's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 12,202 first-year applicants and 2,385 admitted, an acceptance rate of 19.5%. It was 17.4% in 2024-25 and 16.9% in 2023-24.
- What is the Denison early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 394 of 1,589 early decision applicants were admitted (24.8%), against 19.5% 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 Denison students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1270 to 1420, and ACT submitters scored 28 to 33. 26.6% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Denison waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Denison offered 1,376 applicants a place on the waitlist; 347 accepted one, and 31 were admitted from it.
- Does Denison require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test-optional ('We have a test-optional admission policy'); no harm if scores are omitted, and scores that do not help are ignored; superscores.
Applying to Denison?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Denison says it weighs.
Source: Denison Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Denison. All official acceptance rates