Penn State acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Penn State admitted 58,952 of 106,547 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 55.3%. 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 Penn State counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Penn State acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 106,547 | 58,952 | 55.3% | 9,148 | 15.5% |
| 2024-25 | 88,478 | 53,579 | 60.6% | 9,169 | 17.1% |
| 2023-24 | 85,880 | 46,565 | 54.2% | 9,035 | 19.4% |
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 Penn State
Early decision counts: Not published. Penn State’s Common Data Set prints no early decision applicant or admit counts (section C21) for any year shown.
Penn State waitlist
Penn State SAT and ACT scores
What Penn State 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 Penn State rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Academic GPA
- Important: Rigor of secondary school record
- 2024-25
- Very important: Academic GPA
- Important: Rigor of secondary school record
- 2023-24
- Very important: Academic GPA
- Important: Rigor of secondary school record
Penn State testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test optional: first-year applicants for spring, summer or fall can choose whether to have SAT/ACT scores considered. Scores are required only for the Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program.
From Penn State’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
Figures are for the University Park campus, from the latest revision of each document. The 2023-24 C1 has no total column, so that year's totals are the sums of the gender rows. Penn State has no early decision plan.
Penn State acceptance rate questions
- What is the Penn State acceptance rate?
- Penn State's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 106,547 first-year applicants and 58,952 admitted, an acceptance rate of 55.3%. It was 60.6% in 2024-25 and 54.2% in 2023-24.
- What SAT scores do Penn State students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1280 to 1410, and ACT submitters scored 28 to 32. 28.6% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Penn State waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Penn State offered 2,109 applicants a place on the waitlist; 1,153 accepted one, and 46 were admitted from it.
- Does Penn State require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test optional: first-year applicants for spring, summer or fall can choose whether to have SAT/ACT scores considered. Scores are required only for the Accelerated Premedical-Medical Program.
Applying to Penn State?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Penn State says it weighs.
Source: Penn State Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Penn State. All official acceptance rates