Santa Clara acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Santa Clara admitted 9,592 of 20,032 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 47.9%. 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 Santa Clara counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Santa Clara acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 20,032 | 9,592 | 47.9% | 1,641 | 17.1% |
| 2024-25 | 18,970 | 9,105 | 48.0% | 1,611 | 17.7% |
| 2023-24 | 18,843 | 8,261 | 43.8% | 1,552 | 18.8% |
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 Santa Clara
Santa Clara waitlist
Santa Clara SAT and ACT scores
What Santa Clara 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 Santa Clara rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: None recorded
- Important: None recorded
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities, Volunteer work, Work experience
- Important: Class rank, Recommendations, Level of applicant's interest
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities, First generation, Volunteer work, Work experience
- Important: Class rank, Recommendations, Level of applicant's interest
Santa Clara testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test optional. SCU's first-year page says SAT or ACT scores are not required and applicants who do not submit them are not disadvantaged. Students who submit can self-report through the SCU application status portal.
From Santa Clara’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
No C7 ratings are marked in the 2025-26 document, so none are listed for that year. Early decision counts combine both rounds, as the documents state.
Santa Clara acceptance rate questions
- What is the Santa Clara acceptance rate?
- Santa Clara's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 20,032 first-year applicants and 9,592 admitted, an acceptance rate of 47.9%. It was 48.0% in 2024-25 and 43.8% in 2023-24.
- What is the Santa Clara early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 467 of 611 early decision applicants were admitted (76.4%), against 47.9% 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 Santa Clara students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1330 to 1470, and ACT submitters scored 29 to 33. 29.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Santa Clara waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Santa Clara offered 405 applicants a place on the waitlist; 268 accepted one, and 263 were admitted from it.
- Does Santa Clara require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test optional. SCU's first-year page says SAT or ACT scores are not required and applicants who do not submit them are not disadvantaged. Students who submit can self-report through the SCU application status portal.
Applying to Santa Clara?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Santa Clara says it weighs.
Source: Santa Clara Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Santa Clara. All official acceptance rates