What is the SMU acceptance rate?

SMU's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 24,053 first-year applicants and 11,459 admitted, an acceptance rate of 47.6%. It was 63.3% in 2024-25 and 61.2% in 2023-24.

What is the SMU early decision acceptance rate?

In 2025-26, 424 of 528 early decision applicants were admitted (80.3%), against 47.6% 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 SMU students have?

In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1360 to 1470, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 9.4% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.

How many students get off the SMU waitlist?

In 2025-26, SMU offered 4,249 applicants a place on the waitlist; 1,074 accepted one, and 243 were admitted from it.

Official acceptance rates

SMU acceptance rate and admissions statistics

SMU admitted 11,459 of 24,053 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 47.6%. 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 SMU counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.

SMU acceptance rate by year

Common Data Set section C1, first-year applicants
CDS year	Applied	Admitted	Acceptance rate	Enrolled	Yield
2025-26	24,053	11,459	47.6%	1,715	15.0%
2024-25	15,245	9,657	63.3%	1,716	17.8%
2023-24	15,092	9,240	61.2%	1,592	17.2%

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 SMU

Common Data Set section C21
CDS year	ED applicants	ED admitted	ED admit rate	Overall rate
2025-26	528	424	80.3%	47.6%
2024-25	404	353	87.4%	63.3%
2023-24	579	430	74.3%	61.2%

SMU waitlist

Common Data Set section C2
CDS year	Offered a place	Accepted a place	Admitted from it	Admitted, of those who accepted
2025-26	4,249	1,074	243	22.6%
2024-25	1,480	607	67	11.0%
2023-24	1,703	821	292	35.6%

SMU 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	1360 to 1470	31 to 34	9.4%
2024-25	1340 to 1480	30 to 34	15.5%
2023-24	1340 to 1470	30 to 34	17.0%

What SMU 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 SMU rated in the top two tiers.

2025-26: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations; Important: Class rank, Standardized test scores, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
2024-25: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations; Important: Class rank, Standardized test scores, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
2023-24: Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations; Important: Class rank, Standardized test scores, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities

SMU testing policy for students applying in 2026-27

Test-optional: 'SMU is fully test-optional'; no preference given based on whether scores are submitted. Scores matter for academic merit scholarships (recommended 1380 SAT / 29 ACT). The page does not name the cycle; it is the current policy.

From SMU’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. C1 totals are the sums of the men and women rows, which match the residency totals. Applications rose from about 15,200 in 2024-25 to 24,053 in 2025-26, as printed.

SMU acceptance rate questions

What is the SMU acceptance rate?: SMU's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 24,053 first-year applicants and 11,459 admitted, an acceptance rate of 47.6%. It was 63.3% in 2024-25 and 61.2% in 2023-24.
What is the SMU early decision acceptance rate?: In 2025-26, 424 of 528 early decision applicants were admitted (80.3%), against 47.6% 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 SMU students have?: In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1360 to 1470, and ACT submitters scored 31 to 34. 9.4% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
How many students get off the SMU waitlist?: In 2025-26, SMU offered 4,249 applicants a place on the waitlist; 1,074 accepted one, and 243 were admitted from it.
Does SMU require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?: Test-optional: 'SMU is fully test-optional'; no preference given based on whether scores are submitted. Scores matter for academic merit scholarships (recommended 1380 SAT / 29 ACT). The page does not name the cycle; it is the current policy.

Applying to SMU?

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

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