Northeastern acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Northeastern admitted 5,920 of 105,256 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 5.6%. 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 Northeastern counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Northeastern acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 105,256 | 5,920 | 5.6% | 2,736 | 46.2% |
| 2024-25 | 98,425 | 5,133 | 5.2% | 2,759 | 53.8% |
| 2023-24 | 96,631 | 5,459 | 5.6% | 2,744 | 50.3% |
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 Northeastern
Northeastern waitlist
Waitlist counts: Not published. Northeastern’s Common Data Set prints no waitlist numbers (section C2) for any year shown.
Northeastern SAT and ACT scores
What Northeastern 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 Northeastern rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Recommendations
- Important: Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Standardized test scores, Recommendations
- Important: Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Recommendations, Standardized test scores
- Important: Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience
Northeastern testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test-optional: 'Northeastern University is test-optional, and standardized test scores are not required to complete an application for admission.'
From Northeastern’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
The 2025-26 Common Data Set is published as a web page rather than a PDF. Northeastern reports a waitlist but prints no C2 counts in any year shown.
Northeastern acceptance rate questions
- What is the Northeastern acceptance rate?
- Northeastern's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 105,256 first-year applicants and 5,920 admitted, an acceptance rate of 5.6%. It was 5.2% in 2024-25 and 5.6% in 2023-24.
- What is the Northeastern early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 1,910 of 5,404 early decision applicants were admitted (35.3%), against 5.6% 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 Northeastern students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1440 to 1510, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 34. 22.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- Does Northeastern require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test-optional: 'Northeastern University is test-optional, and standardized test scores are not required to complete an application for admission.'
Applying to Northeastern?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Northeastern says it weighs.
Source: Northeastern Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Northeastern. All official acceptance rates