What is the Occidental acceptance rate?

Occidental's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 7,490 first-year applicants and 3,359 admitted, an acceptance rate of 44.8%. It was 44.2% in 2024-25 and 39.9% in 2023-24.

What is the Occidental early decision acceptance rate?

In 2024-25, 223 of 466 early decision applicants were admitted (47.9%), against 44.2% 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 Occidental students have?

In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1400 to 1510, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 25.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.

How many students get off the Occidental waitlist?

In 2025-26, Occidental offered 969 applicants a place on the waitlist; 297 accepted one, and 72 were admitted from it.

Official acceptance rates

Occidental acceptance rate and admissions statistics

Occidental admitted 3,359 of 7,490 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 44.8%. 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 Occidental counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.

Occidental acceptance rate by year

Common Data Set section C1, first-year applicants
CDS year	Applied	Admitted	Acceptance rate	Enrolled	Yield
2025-26	7,490	3,359	44.8%	437	13.0%
2024-25	6,461	2,854	44.2%	509	17.8%
2023-24	6,573	2,622	39.9%	532	20.3%

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 Occidental

Common Data Set section C21
CDS year	ED applicants	ED admitted	ED admit rate	Overall rate
2025-26	Not published	Not published	Not published	44.8%
2024-25	466	223	47.9%	44.2%
2023-24	441	230	52.2%	39.9%

Occidental waitlist

Common Data Set section C2
CDS year	Offered a place	Accepted a place	Admitted from it	Admitted, of those who accepted
2025-26	969	297	72	24.2%
2024-25	1,238	437	71	16.2%
2023-24	1,534	841	60	7.1%

Occidental 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	1400 to 1510	31 to 34	25.0%
2024-25	1400 to 1495	31 to 34	20.0%
2023-24	1370 to 1470	31 to 34	23.0%

What Occidental 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 Occidental rated in the top two tiers.

2025-26: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities; Important: Class rank, Recommendations, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work
2024-25: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay; Important: Class rank, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience
2023-24: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay; Important: Class rank, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience

Occidental testing policy for students applying in 2026-27

Test-optional: Occidental does not require standardized testing for first-year or transfer applicants. The 2025-26 CDS C8 also lists Fall 2027 as 'Not required for admission, but considered if submitted'.

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

How these numbers were read

Links are to each year's Section C. The 2025-26 enrolled figure (437) is the sum of 436 full-time and 1 part-time. The 2025-26 C21 lists an early decision plan but prints no counts.

Occidental acceptance rate questions

What is the Occidental acceptance rate?: Occidental's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 7,490 first-year applicants and 3,359 admitted, an acceptance rate of 44.8%. It was 44.2% in 2024-25 and 39.9% in 2023-24.
What is the Occidental early decision acceptance rate?: In 2024-25, 223 of 466 early decision applicants were admitted (47.9%), against 44.2% 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 Occidental students have?: In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1400 to 1510, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 25.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
How many students get off the Occidental waitlist?: In 2025-26, Occidental offered 969 applicants a place on the waitlist; 297 accepted one, and 72 were admitted from it.
Does Occidental require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?: Test-optional: Occidental does not require standardized testing for first-year or transfer applicants. The 2025-26 CDS C8 also lists Fall 2027 as 'Not required for admission, but considered if submitted'.

Applying to Occidental?

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

Book a free call

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