Yale College admitted 2,275 students to the class of 2027 from its largest-ever pool of 52,250 applicants. An additional 1,145 applicants were offered a place on the waitlist.
Anika Arora Seth
Staff Reporter
Logan Howard, Senior Photographer
Yale College admitted 2,275 students to the class of 2027 from its largest-ever pool of 52,250 applicants, the Office of Undergraduate Admissions announced on Thursday.
776 students were admitted during the early action round and 66 matched through the QuestBridge National College Match program. The remaining 1,433 received their offers of admissions Thursday. An additional 1,145 applicants were offered spots on the waitlist.
The admitted cohort overall includes students from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, four United States territories and 78 countries. The admissions office withholds detailed statistics about the demographics of the applicant pool as well as the group of admitted students each year, but told the News it would release a profile of matriculates in August.
“The strength and diversity of the applicant pool is much more important than the number of applications we receive,” said Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid Jeremiah Quinlan in the announcement. “I am pleased that Yale College continues to appeal to promising students from a wide range of backgrounds. I am also proud that the admissions office has been able to continue its thoughtful whole-person review process of each applicant, even as the volume of applications has increased.”
The number of applicants is up by nearly 50 percent compared to the pool of students that sought entry to the class of 2024. Quinlan attributed this shift to the University’s choice to adopt a test-optional policy in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which the admissions office has renewed for each of the intervening application cycles. Last month, the admissions office extended its test-optional policy through to class of 2028’s application cycle, with plans to decide on a long-term testing policy in the winter of 2024.
The 4.35 percent acceptance rate for the class for 2027 is the lowest in recent history, down from 4.46 percent for the class of 2026, 4.62 for the class of 2025, 6.54 percent for the class of 2024 and 5.91 for the class of 2023.
According to the admissions office, the target size for the first-year class has rested between 1,550 and 1,575 students since the new residential colleges — Pauli Murray and Benjamin Franklin Colleges — opened in 2017.
This year’s class of admitted students will be invited to Yale’s campus for Bulldog Days, a program that showcases academic and extracurricular life on campus, from April 24 to 26.
Students admitted in the early action round who were unable to travel to campus for Bulldog Days also had the option of participating in this year’s inaugural “Yalies for a Day” program on one of four days in February. There will be four additional “Yalie for a Day” programs on one of four days early next month for students admitted on Thursday evening.
“The Yale community does an extraordinary job opening its arms to admitted students every spring,”
Senior Associate Director for Outreach and Recruitment Mark Dunn said in Thursday’s announcement. “I believe Yale’s greatest asset is its people, and my top priority in the month of April is connecting admitted students with the undergraduates, faculty, and staff who make Yale so special.”
The admissions office extends travel grants to low-income students interested in participating in Bulldog Days. Last year, more than 500 admitted students received such funding.
The admissions office’s Recruitment Coordinators, who are current Yalie student employees, are also running a program called “Prefrosh Advisors.” Admitted students who opt into the program are matched to one of over 240 current Yalies who host Zooms or FaceTimes to answer questions from new admits.
“I heard recently from a Prefrosh Advisor majoring in music that he has been helping his music-interested students navigate their college options for music programs, while sharing his experience as part of our music department and student performance groups here,” Assistant Director of Admissions Marty Chandler ’21 told the News. “These are exactly the conversations our team hoped would come from the program, and we’re excited to have RD admitted students join us soon as well.”
Newly-admitted students who choose to join the class of 2027 will be joined by an additional 54 students who were originally admitted to the class of 2026 — the current first-year class — but chose to postpone their matriculation for one year.
Admitted students are required to matriculate by May 1.
ANIKA ARORA SETH Anika Arora Seth is the 146th Editor in Chief and President of the Yale Daily News. Anika previously covered STEM at Yale as well as admissions, alumni and financial aid. She also laid out the weekly print edition of the News as a Production & Design editor and was one of the inaugural Diversity, Equity & Inclusion co-chairs. Anika is pursuing a double major in biomedical engineering and women's, gender and sexuality studies.
