Early vs. regular rounds at 10 top US universities: Class of 2029 admit rates
Class of 2029 acceptance rates at Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Duke, Northwestern and five other top schools, and how much applying early changed the odds.
At Duke, roughly one in eight early decision applicants to the Class of 2029 was admitted. In the regular round, fewer than one in 25 got in. Versions of that gap show up across the most selective US universities, and when you are deciding where and when to apply, it tells you more than any single headline acceptance rate.
Here are the results for ten top-ranked universities from the admissions cycle that closed in spring 2025 and produced the Class of 2029. For each school you'll find how its early program works, how selective the regular round was, and what else shaped the year.
The Class of 2029 at a glance
The figures come from university announcements and press coverage of each school's results. Where a school does not report its regular-round results separately, only the overall rate is shown.
Early programs at these schools come in three types, and the rules shape the rest of your list.
Restrictive or single-choice early action (Princeton, Harvard, Stanford, Yale). The offer is non-binding, so an admitted student can still compare options in the spring. In exchange, you may not apply early to other private universities. Princeton, for example, makes an exception for early programs at public universities.
Unrestricted early action (MIT, and one of UChicago's options). Non-binding, with no limits on applying early elsewhere.
Early decision (Duke, Northwestern and Penn, each with a single November round; Johns Hopkins and UChicago, with both ED I and ED II). ED is binding: if you are admitted, you commit to enroll. At Hopkins and UChicago the ED II deadline falls in early January, the same time as regular decision, so students must choose between the two by then.
School by school
Princeton
Princeton received 42,303 applications for the Class of 2029, the most in its history, and admitted about 4.4 percent, down slightly from 4.6 percent the year before. Roughly three in four admitted students chose to enroll, a yield of 75.2 percent. Princeton stopped announcing its admission figures on decision day several years ago; these numbers came out in a 2025 report to the faculty.
The university has been gradually enlarging its undergraduate class. About 14 percent of admitted students were international, and expanded aid for lower-income families has brought the share of Pell Grant-eligible students to around a quarter.
MIT
MIT has no early decision round. It admitted 1,334 of 29,281 applicants (4.6 percent), and the round-by-round split is revealing. In early action, 721 of 12,052 applicants (about 6 percent) got in, and another 175 early applicants were admitted later in the regular round. Of the roughly 17,200 students who applied only in the regular round, about 2.5 percent were admitted. Students admitted in early action made up about 54 percent of the admitted class.
MIT is unusually transparent, posting applicant and admit counts for each round on its admissions site. It again requires the SAT or ACT, and interest has not cooled. The middle 50 percent of admitted students scored 780–800 in math and 740–780 in reading and writing.
Harvard
For the Class of 2029, Harvard brought back its SAT/ACT requirement, and applications fell from more than 54,000 to 47,893. The acceptance rate rose from about 3.6 percent to 4.18 percent: 2,003 students were admitted and 1,675 enrolled, a yield of about 84 percent.
Harvard no longer releases detailed statistics when early decisions go out. The overall numbers became public only in fall 2025, when the university released the class's demographic data. The higher rate owes much to the smaller applicant pool, so it is worth watching whether the test requirement keeps application numbers down. Harvard's expanded aid also showed in the class: nearly half of admitted students came from families earning $200,000 or less, who qualify for free tuition.
Stanford
Stanford does not announce its acceptance rate when decisions are released, so no Class of 2029 figure came out alongside the other schools' results. It publishes its data later through its Common Data Set, where the rate for the previous year's class was 3.61 percent. Stanford's yield is among the highest in the country, with more than 80 percent of admitted students enrolling.
Yale
Yale's overall acceptance rate for the Class of 2029 was 4.59 percent, higher than the year before. As at Harvard, Yale brought back a testing requirement for this cycle, and its applicant pool shrank. Yale did not officially announce separate early and regular rates. Its aid policies are unchanged: admission is need-blind, aid covers each student's full demonstrated need, and about half of admitted students receive financial aid.
University of Chicago
UChicago offers more ways in than any other school on this list: non-binding early action, binding ED I in November, binding ED II in January, and regular decision, which shares its early-January deadline with ED II.
UChicago does not publish its acceptance rate. It draws applicants in the tens of thousands each year, and its selectivity rivals the Ivy League's. Its two binding rounds are widely seen as the more favorable path, but the university releases no round-by-round figures. UChicago became one of the first highly selective universities to go test-optional, in 2018, and paired that with aggressive recruiting that grew its applicant pool and pushed its admit rate down. It is also known for unusually creative essay prompts and for favoring self-directed, intellectually driven students.
Johns Hopkins
Hopkins offers two binding rounds: ED I, due in early November, and ED II, due in early January alongside regular decision. For the Class of 2029, applications rose 8.8 percent to nearly 50,000, and the overall acceptance rate fell sharply to about 5.1 percent.
The regular round was especially tight. After admitting 793 students through ED I and ED II, Hopkins admitted 1,732 of 41,549 regular applicants, about 4 percent. Early decision accounted for about 31 percent of all 2,525 admitted students. The pattern favors ED, provided you are ready to make a binding commitment.
Duke
Duke has a single binding ED round, due November 1. For the Class of 2029, it received a record 58,698 applications, about 4,500 more than the year before, and its overall acceptance rate fell to a record-low 4.8 percent.
The split tells the story. Of 2,818 admitted students, 849 came from a pool of 6,714 early decision applicants, an admit rate of about 13 percent. The remaining 1,969 came from 51,984 regular applicants, a rate under 4 percent. Duke's announcement also pointed to more admitted students from North and South Carolina and progress in enrolling Pell Grant-eligible students. Duke secures a large share of its class in ED and fills the rest in the regular round, so if Duke is your clear first choice, applying early can work in your favor.
Northwestern
Northwestern has one binding ED round, due November 1, and is known for admitting ED applicants at a comparatively generous rate. For the Class of 2029, applications topped 53,000 for the first time, and about 3,700 students were admitted. The overall rate, 7.0 percent, was down from 7.5 percent and the lowest in Northwestern's history.
According to the university, about 20 percent of ED applicants were admitted, compared with 5.3 percent in the regular round. About 1,200 ED admits filled more than half of the incoming class, leaving roughly 2,500 offers for some 47,000 regular applicants. Northwestern has long leaned on ED to secure committed students and a stable class. Beyond the numbers, it is known for strong programs in theater, music and journalism.
Penn
Applications to Penn for the Class of 2029 rose more than 10 percent, from about 65,000 to more than 72,500, and about 3,550 students were admitted. The acceptance rate of 4.9 percent, down from 5.39 percent, was the lowest in Penn's history.
Early decision typically fills close to half of Penn's class, which makes the regular round considerably more selective than the headline rate suggests. Beginning in 2025, Penn also expanded its financial aid: more families earning $200,000 or less now receive full-tuition support, and a family's home equity no longer counts in aid calculations. The university has become more cautious about releasing admissions data, so detailed figures may not appear quickly in future cycles either.
What the numbers mean for your application
Rates move every year. They shift with class size and the size of the applicant pool. A rising rate, as at Harvard and Yale in this cycle, can simply mean fewer people applied.
Early rounds usually admit at higher rates. At Duke and Northwestern, the ED rate was more than three times the regular rate. ED is a binding commitment, though, so save it for a school you would attend without hesitation.
The regular round is often the hardest stage. Early admits made up about 30 percent of admitted students at Hopkins and Duke and more than half of Northwestern's incoming class, so regular applicants compete for what remains.
Check the official pages every cycle. Dates and requirements change slightly from year to year. Confirm them directly with each school, for example Princeton, MIT, Harvard, Yale, UChicago, Duke, Northwestern and Penn.
Applying early means your transcript, essays and activities need to be ready by November of senior year. If you are a younger student planning ahead and want to complete a substantial research project on that timeline, take a look at CRI's research programs.
