Data story · October 21, 2026 · All data stories
Much of the public conversation about getting into college is about a small group of colleges that admit very few applicants. The numbers say that this group is small.
The picture
This chart counts 1,724 colleges that reported at least 100 applicants (IPEDS, most recent year available, mostly 2024) by the share of applicants they admitted.
Source: NCES IPEDS Admissions, most recent year available for each college (mostly 2024, provisional), colleges with at least 100 applicants; counts by MajorPays.
What stands out
- The median acceptance rate is 76%: half of these colleges admit three out of four applicants or more.
- Only about 6% admit fewer than a quarter of applicants and about 17% admit fewer than half.
- About 53% admit at least three-quarters, and about 23% admit nine in ten or more.
- The most common bracket holds 388 colleges (90% to 100%).
What this does and does not say
An acceptance rate counts admitted applicants out of applicants. It does not say how good a college is, how many students graduate or how hard the coursework is. Colleges that admit nearly everyone can graduate most of their students, and some that admit few do not. Colleges that do not report admissions, including many open-admission and two-year colleges, are not in this chart, so it describes colleges that report applicant counts rather than all colleges.
If you are choosing where to apply, the acceptance rate is one input among several, alongside cost, programs, graduation rates and fit. School profiles on MajorPays show these together and never rank schools.
How we computed this
Colleges with fewer than 100 applicants or no reported acceptance rate are left out. Brackets are 10 percentage points wide; the last includes 100%. Figures are not weighted by enrollment.
MajorPays shares information, not advice. Figures are group statistics from U.S. government sources, not predictions for any person, and MajorPays does not rank schools or places. See our methodology.