Howard acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Howard admitted 15,724 of 37,270 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 42.2%. 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 Howard counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Howard acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 37,270 | 15,724 | 42.2% | 2,490 | 15.8% |
| 2024-25 | 34,211 | 14,144 | 41.3% | 2,738 | 19.4% |
| 2022-23 | 19,537 | 10,140 | 51.9% | 2,493 | 24.6% |
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 Howard
Howard waitlist
Howard SAT and ACT scores
What Howard 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 Howard rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores
- Important: Character/personal qualities
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores
- Important: Character/personal qualities
- 2022-23
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA
- Important: Application essay, Recommendations, Character/personal qualities
Howard testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test-optional: for the 2026-27 admission cycle, SAT/ACT scores are not required for a first-year application to be complete. Submitted scores count only if they are official scores sent by the testing agency.
From Howard’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
Howard has posted no 2023-24 Common Data Set, so the three most recent are 2025-26, 2024-25 and 2022-23. The number admitted from the waitlist is blank in 2025-26 and 2024-25.
Howard acceptance rate questions
- What is the Howard acceptance rate?
- Howard's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 37,270 first-year applicants and 15,724 admitted, an acceptance rate of 42.2%. It was 41.3% in 2024-25 and 51.9% in 2022-23.
- What is the Howard early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 363 of 430 early decision applicants were admitted (84.4%), against 42.2% 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 Howard students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1050 to 1270, and ACT submitters scored 20 to 26. 47.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Howard waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Howard offered 1,310 applicants a place on the waitlist; 637 accepted one, and the number admitted from it is not published.
- Does Howard require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test-optional: for the 2026-27 admission cycle, SAT/ACT scores are not required for a first-year application to be complete. Submitted scores count only if they are official scores sent by the testing agency.
Applying to Howard?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Howard says it weighs.
Source: Howard Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Howard. All official acceptance rates