Ivy League Acceptance Rates 2028: All 8 Schools Ranked
Published 2026-05-18 · Last reviewed 2026-05-18
TL;DR
- For the Class of 2028, Ivy acceptance rates ranged from roughly 3.6% (Harvard) to the mid–single digits at every school that still publishes — the most competitive cycle on record outside of the pandemic spike.
- Applying early (ED, EA, or REA) lifts your odds 2–4× versus regular decision at every Ivy that breaks out the numbers — but the early pool is also stronger.
- No prediction market currently lists Ivy acceptance rates, but the dataset is exactly the kind of recurring, well-defined event Kalshi and Polymarket are built to price.
Ivy Day is a sport now. Here's what the markets actually say about your school — receipts, history, and where the lines are heading.
The current odds: Class of 2028
Ranked by overall acceptance rate, lowest to highest. Schools that have stopped publishing exact figures are listed at the bottom with their last-known rate noted.
| School | Applicants | Admits | Overall rate | Early rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | 54,008 | 1,937 | 3.6% | 8.4% (REA) |
| Yale | 57,465 | 2,146 | 3.7% | 9.0% (REA) |
| Columbia | 60,248 | 2,319 | 3.9% | 11.7% (ED) |
| Dartmouth | 31,657 | 1,685 | 5.3% | 17.1% (ED) |
| Brown | 48,904 | 2,606 | 5.3% | 13.9% (ED) |
| Princeton | — | — | — | — (REA) |
| Penn | — | — | — | — (ED) |
| Cornell | — | — | — | — (ED) |
ED = Early Decision (binding). REA = Restrictive Early Action (non-binding, can't apply ED elsewhere). EA = Early Action (non-binding). Dashes indicate schools that stopped publishing the figure.
The 5-year trend
Overall acceptance rate by class year. The Class of 2025 cycle (admitted spring 2021) was the test-optional pandemic peak in application volume — and the absolute floor in acceptance rates at most Ivies. Rates have crept up slightly since but remain well below 2019 levels.
| School | '24 | '25 | '26 | '27 | '28 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvard | 4.9% | 3.4% | 3.2% | 3.4% | 3.6% |
| Princeton | 5.5% | 4.0% | — | — | — |
| Yale | 6.5% | 4.6% | 4.5% | 4.3% | 3.7% |
| Columbia | 6.2% | 3.7% | 3.7% | 3.9% | 3.9% |
| Penn | 8.1% | 5.9% | 6.0% | — | — |
| Brown | 6.9% | 5.5% | 5.1% | 5.1% | 5.3% |
| Dartmouth | 8.8% | 6.2% | 6.2% | 6.2% | 5.3% |
| Cornell | 10.8% | 8.7% | — | — | — |
ED vs RD: the real edge
The most actionable number in admissions data is the gap between early and regular decision rates. For the Class of 2028 at schools that broke it out:
- Dartmouth — 17.1% ED vs 3.8% RD (4.5× advantage)
- Brown — 13.9% ED vs 3.9% RD (3.6× advantage)
- Columbia — 11.7% ED vs 2.7% RD (4.3× advantage)
The headline ratio overstates the real edge. Early pools at every Ivy include recruited athletes (200–300 per class), legacies, QuestBridge match commits, development cases, and a self-selected group of strong applicants. Strip those out and the unhooked-applicant early bump is closer to 1.5–2× than 4×. It's still a meaningful advantage — just not the one the raw numbers suggest.
Harvard, Princeton, and Yale use restrictive early action rather than binding ED, which raises their early rates less because the pool is less self-selecting (no binding commitment) but is heavier on internationally competitive applicants.
What changed: test-optional, legacy, and affirmative action
Test-optional, then test-required again
Every Ivy went test-optional in 2020. By 2024, Dartmouth, Yale, and Brown had reinstated standardized test requirements; Harvard followed for the Class of 2029. The internal data driving the reversal: schools found that test scores were a stronger predictor of first-year academic performance than they had publicly acknowledged, particularly for first-generation and lower-income applicants who had been advised to skip submitting.
The 2023 affirmative action ruling
In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that race-conscious admissions at Harvard and UNC violated the Equal Protection Clause. The Class of 2028 was the first admitted under the new rules. Published demographic data showed modest shifts — small declines in Black student enrollment at most Ivies, increases in Asian American enrollment at some — but the headline acceptance rates barely moved.
Legacy admissions under pressure
Wesleyan, Amherst, and Johns Hopkins dropped legacy preferences. Among the Ivies, none have formally ended legacy admissions, but several have reduced the bump and Harvard faced a federal civil rights investigation over the practice in 2024.
Can you bet on this?
Not yet. Neither Kalshi nor Polymarket currently lists markets on individual Ivy acceptance rates. The data shape is ideal for an event contract: a single number, published on a fixed schedule, by a verifiable source. The reasons it hasn't happened are mostly platform-side — Kalshi has focused on macroeconomic and political markets, and Polymarket on geopolitics and elections. Education contracts are an underserved category.
We track this in the We're watching section on the homepage. The day either venue lists, we'll have live odds on this page.
Methodology and sources
Numbers come from each school's official admissions office press releases and Common Data Set filings. Where a school stopped publishing a figure (Princeton after 2025, Penn after 2026, Cornell after 2025), the cell is left blank rather than estimated. Early acceptance rates combine ED, REA, and EA pools where reported.
- Harvard University admissions
- Princeton University admissions
- Yale University admissions
- Columbia University admissions
- University of Pennsylvania admissions
- Brown University admissions
- Dartmouth College admissions
- Cornell University admissions
Last reviewed May 2026. We update this page each April after Ivy Day decisions are released.
Frequently asked questions
What's the hardest Ivy League school to get into?
Harvard has the lowest published acceptance rate among the Ivies for the Class of 2028 at roughly 3.6%, followed closely by Yale at 3.7% and Columbia at 3.9%. Princeton and Cornell stopped publishing exact rates, but historical filings suggest Princeton is in the same range as Harvard and Yale.
Does applying early decision actually help?
Yes — meaningfully. At Brown, Penn, Dartmouth, and Columbia, the early decision acceptance rate is 2–4× the regular decision rate. Dartmouth's Class of 2028 ED rate was 17.1% versus 3.8% RD. The catch: early pools include recruited athletes, legacies, and QuestBridge matches, which skew the numbers.
Is the Ivy League harder to get into than ever?
Yes, on a 10-year horizon. Application volume roughly doubled at most Ivies between 2014 and 2024 while class sizes barely moved. Rates briefly hit absolute lows during the 2021–2022 test-optional surge, rebounded slightly as some schools reinstated testing, but remain far below pre-2018 levels.
Will Ivy acceptance rates rebound?
Probably not materially. Schools have signaled they won't significantly expand undergraduate class sizes, and the Common App keeps making it cheaper to apply to more schools. The reinstatement of standardized testing at Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, and Harvard may slightly reduce application volume from marginal applicants, but the long-term trend is more applicants, not fewer.
Can I bet on Ivy League acceptance rates on Kalshi or Polymarket?
Not yet. As of 2026, neither Kalshi nor Polymarket lists markets on individual school acceptance rates. The dataset is well-defined and resolves on a fixed annual cycle, which makes it a natural fit — we track it in our 'We're watching' section so you'll see it the moment a venue lists.
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