Admissions Essentials · Getting in
How much of the class early decision fills at California colleges
At the Claremont colleges more than half of the first-year class can come from the early decision round. Here is each California college’s share, its early and overall admit rates, and how both have moved.
SourceClaremont McKenna, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Santa Clara, LMU, Chapman, Occidental, USD, Pepperdine, USC, Stanford, Caltech, 2025-26 (fall 2025) and 2015-16, or the earliest year each college still hosts; USC Office of the Provost, USC’s plan for fall 2027.
How much of each class early decision fills
Early decision is binding: a student applies to one college early, and if admitted must enroll and withdraw every other application. Each college’s Common Data Set reports how many students it admitted through early decision and how many first-years enrolled, so dividing one by the other gives the most the early round could have filled. In fall 2025 that was 64.5% at Claremont McKenna, and 3 colleges (Claremont McKenna, Pitzer, Pomona) could have filled more than half their class this way.
An upper-bound estimate: early decision admits divided by first-years enrolled, which assumes every early decision admit enrolled. A few are released for financial aid reasons, so the true share is a little lower. The earlier dot is each college’s 2015-16 report, or the earliest one its site still hosts (Scripps 2016-17, Harvey Mudd 2022-23). Santa Clara’s count combines its two early decision rounds. Colleges with no dot for the earlier year had no early decision then.
Every California college we checked
| College | ED share, fall 2025 | Earlier | ED admit rate | Overall admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Claremont McKenna | 64.5% | 53.9% (2015-16) | 22.1% | 9.4% |
| Pomona | 53.9% | 43.8% (2015-16) | 13.7% | 7.1% |
| Pitzer | 61.2% | 44.2% (2015-16) | 43.4% | 26.9% |
| Scripps | 46.8% | 44.1% (2016-17) | 51.3% | 39.9% |
| Harvey Mudd | 46.2% | 40.5% (2022-23) | 18.4% | 12.3% |
| Santa Clara | 28.5% | 10.8% (2015-16) | 76.4% | 47.9% |
| Loyola Marymount | 23.7% | no ED (2015-16) | 42.4% | 48.2% |
| Chapman | 8.4% | no ED (2015-16) | 51.4% | 72.1% |
| Occidental | not reported | 23.4% (2015-16) | 44.9% | |
| University of San Diego | not reported | no ED (2015-16) | 53.6% | |
| Pepperdine | no ED | 69.4% | ||
| USC | no ED | 11.2% | ||
| Stanford | no ED | 3.8% | ||
| Caltech | no ED | 3.8% |
From each college’s Common Data Set 2025-26: C21 for early decision applications and admits, C1 for first-year applicants, admits and enrolled students (fall 2025). The college name links to the file we used. Overall admit rates include the early decision round.
- Occidental: Offers ED I and ED II but leaves the counts blank.
- University of San Diego: Lists early decision dates but leaves the application and admit counts blank.
- Pepperdine: The CDS reports no early decision counts for fall 2025 and notes early decision takes effect with the fall 2026 applicant pool.
- Stanford: Restrictive early action, not early decision.
- Caltech: Restrictive early action, not early decision.
- USC: no early decision plan for fall 2025, when it admitted 11.2% of 83,488 applicants. USC has added early decision for students applying for fall 2027, so its first early decision numbers will appear in its 2027-28 Common Data Set.
- The University of California has no early round of any kind.
What this means for a family deciding
The early decision admit rate was higher than the overall rate at 6 of the 8 colleges that reported both, and lower at Loyola Marymount and Chapman. The early pool is a self-selected group, so the gap overstates the advantage for any one student. At Claremont McKenna, 22.1% of early decision applicants were admitted against 9.4% overall. At Santa Clara the early round went from 10.8% of the class in 2015-16 to 28.5% in 2025-26.
The real cost is the commitment. A student who applies early decision gives up comparing financial aid offers, so we only recommend it when the college is a clear first choice and the family has run its net price calculator first.
Where every number comes from
- Common Data Set, sections C1 and C21, from each college’s institutional research office, Claremont McKenna, Pomona, Pitzer, Scripps, Harvey Mudd, Santa Clara, LMU, Chapman, Occidental, USD, Pepperdine, USC, Stanford, Caltech. Covers 2025-26 (fall 2025) and 2015-16, or the earliest year each college still hosts.
- Introducing new Early Decision admissions options for Fall 2027 applicants, USC Office of the Provost. Covers USC’s plan for fall 2027.
We downloaded these files ourselves and computed every figure on this page from them. Where a publisher left a value blank for privacy, we left it blank too.
The odds for everyone, and yours
The numbers tell you the odds for everyone. A counselor tells you yours. Talk to one of ours, free.