Vanderbilt acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Vanderbilt admitted 2,593 of 48,196 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 5.4%. 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 Vanderbilt counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Vanderbilt acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 48,196 | 2,593 | 5.4% | 1,635 | 63.1% |
| 2024-25 | 45,409 | 2,662 | 5.9% | 1,630 | 61.2% |
| 2023-24 | 45,313 | 2,844 | 6.3% | 1,622 | 57.0% |
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 Vanderbilt
Vanderbilt waitlist
Vanderbilt SAT and ACT scores
What Vanderbilt 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 Vanderbilt rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Standardized test scores, Recommendations, Talent/ability
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Standardized test scores, Recommendations, Talent/ability
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Extracurricular activities, Character/personal qualities
- Important: Standardized test scores, Recommendations, Talent/ability
Vanderbilt testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test-optional for students applying for entry in fall 2027 and fall 2028 (SAT or ACT scores optional; self-reported scores accepted; official scores required on enrolling). Vanderbilt will require SAT or ACT scores for fall 2029 entry and later.
From Vanderbilt’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
C2 prints only the number admitted from the waitlist in each year shown.
Vanderbilt acceptance rate questions
- What is the Vanderbilt acceptance rate?
- Vanderbilt's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 48,196 first-year applicants and 2,593 admitted, an acceptance rate of 5.4%. It was 5.9% in 2024-25 and 6.3% in 2023-24.
- What is the Vanderbilt early decision acceptance rate?
- In 2025-26, 874 of 6,202 early decision applicants were admitted (14.1%), against 5.4% 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 Vanderbilt students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1510 to 1560, and ACT submitters scored 34 to 35. 24.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Vanderbilt waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Vanderbilt offered an unpublished number of applicants a place on the waitlist; the number who accepted is not published, and 207 were admitted from it.
- Does Vanderbilt require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test-optional for students applying for entry in fall 2027 and fall 2028 (SAT or ACT scores optional; self-reported scores accepted; official scores required on enrolling). Vanderbilt will require SAT or ACT scores for fall 2029 entry and later.
Applying to Vanderbilt?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Vanderbilt says it weighs.
Source: Vanderbilt Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Vanderbilt. All official acceptance rates