The acceptance rate, a percentage of applicants who accepted, is an difficulty indicator for college admission. In general, the lower the acceptance rate, the more difficult it is to get into college. The top ranked colleges such as Harvard and Stanford keep very low rate of less than 10%. A Number of schools has been working to lower their acceptance rate in recent years. For example, UF's rate dropped from 42.01% (2017) to 30.00% (2021) and Johns Hopkins's rate fell from 12.54% (2017) to 8.00% (2021)
At 19 colleges, the acceptance rate is continually dropped year by year in the past 5 years. A main factor driving down the acceptance rate is the increase in the number of applicants, while the number of admitted students does not change drastically. In fact, many schools had significantly more applicants than last year. In addition, schools' effort results in the lower acceptance rate. Low rates can be a way to get relatively good students, so schools try to keep them as low as possible. Also, a shrinking number of students or school size can lower acceptance rates.
The next two tables show the key statistics and the changes of acceptance rate for the past 5 years. You can check the detailed information and admission trends in each school's page.
