Yale acceptance rate and admissions statistics
Yale admitted 2,387 of 50,264 first-year applicants in its 2025-26 Common Data Set, an official acceptance rate of 4.7%. 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 Yale counts the grades, scores and activities they posted.
Yale acceptance rate by year
| CDS year | Applied | Admitted | Acceptance rate | Enrolled | Yield |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-26 | 50,264 | 2,387 | 4.7% | 1,633 | 68.4% |
| 2024-25 | 57,517 | 2,227 | 3.9% | 1,554 | 69.8% |
| 2023-24 | 51,803 | 2,332 | 4.5% | 1,641 | 70.4% |
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 Yale
Early decision counts: Not published. Yale’s Common Data Set prints no early decision applicant or admit counts (section C21) for any year shown.
Yale waitlist
Yale SAT and ACT scores
What Yale 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 Yale rated in the top two tiers.
- 2025-26
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
- 2024-25
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
- 2023-24
- Very important: Rigor of secondary school record, Class rank, Academic GPA, Application essay, Recommendations, Extracurricular activities, Talent/ability, Character/personal qualities
- Important: None recorded
Yale testing policy for students applying in 2026-27
Test required. Yale requires first-year applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores.
From Yale’s admissions site, read 2026-11-05. Policies change; the college’s page is the authority.
How these numbers were read
Yale's C1 prints counts by gender only, so applied, admitted and enrolled are the sums of the printed gender rows. Yale offers Single-Choice Early Action rather than early decision, so C21 has no early decision counts.
Yale acceptance rate questions
- What is the Yale acceptance rate?
- Yale's Common Data Set for 2025-26 reports 50,264 first-year applicants and 2,387 admitted, an acceptance rate of 4.7%. It was 3.9% in 2024-25 and 4.5% in 2023-24.
- What SAT scores do Yale students have?
- In 2025-26, the middle half of enrolled first-year students who submitted the SAT scored 1480 to 1560, and ACT submitters scored 33 to 35. 67.0% of enrolled students submitted an SAT score.
- How many students get off the Yale waitlist?
- In 2025-26, Yale offered 944 applicants a place on the waitlist; 738 accepted one, and 32 were admitted from it.
- Does Yale require the SAT or ACT for students applying in 2026-27?
- Test required. Yale requires first-year applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores.
Applying to Yale?
An acceptance rate describes the whole pool, not one student. A Specialist can read your student’s file against what Yale says it weighs.
Source: Yale Common Data Set, sections C1, C2, C7, C9 and C21, each year linked above, read 2026-11-05. Aristo Scholars is not affiliated with Yale. All official acceptance rates