U.S. News & World Report released their 2025 college rankings this morning.  Nearly 1,500 schools were ranked based on 17 factors, with the methodology mostly unchanged from the previous year.  

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

With the fall 2024-25 application cycle approaching, it's important to keep an eye on interview requirements for the schools on your list—especially if they're looking for evidence of demonstrated interest.  

For example in cases like Hillsdale College where interviews are encouraged and demonstrated interest is very important, it's a good bet that taking advantage of an optional interview — in-person or virtual — is worth your time and may more strongly weigh on your candidacy for admission.

To compile this list, we first surveyed every school in our coverage universe where the latest Common Data Set entry for "level of applicant's interest" was reported as important or very important.  We then identified the schools where interviews are offered, encouraged, or required. 

 The devil is in the details, so to help you figure out your strategy we've also included a link to each listed school's interview policy.  Do keep in mind that interview requirements may often vary by major.   Also note that the Common Data set defines four options—very important, important, considered and not considered—and that inconsistencies are likely to exist in the way colleges define these terms.

This information is current as of 6/26/2024.

College Kickstart subscribers: this information is already available to you in the Summary and Requirements views.

 

Click on Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our updated list of reported overall admission rates for the Class of 2028. Results are now available for American University, Amherst College, Auburn, Barnard, Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brown, Bucknell, BYU, Carleton College, Colby, Colgate, Colorado College, Columbia, Dartmouth, Duke, Elon, Emory, Fairfield, Florida State, Fordham, Franklin & Marshall, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Holy Cross, Howard, Johns Hopkins, Lafayette, Lehigh, Macalester, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, NYU, Oberlin, Rice, Santa Clara University, Swarthmore, Tufts, Tulane, University of Georgia, University of Miami, University of Richmond, University of Southern California, University of Tennessee - Knoxville, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Wellesley, Wesleyan, William & Mary, Williams College and Yale.  Latest year application totals are available for many more.

Bookmark this page as we'll update frequently as more institutions report results. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

 

Here's our updated list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2028.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year.  Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.

Good luck, seniors!

Bowdoin College announced it admitted 924 applicants to the Class of 2028.  

A total of 13,265 applications were received, up 16 percent year over year, resulting in an admission rate of 7 percent.   

Click here for the article.

 

Here's our initial list of reported early decision and early action admission rates for the Class of 2028.

This list includes results from American University, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Bucknell, Colorado College, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Fairfield, Florida State University (in-state), Fordham, Georgetown, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern (Boston Campus), Notre Dame, Rice, Santa Clara University, the University of Georgia, the University of Southern California, the University of Tennessee, the University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Williams College, and Yale.  

Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our updated list of early decision and early action notification dates for the Class of 2028.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here where available, as well as last year's notification dates for reference.   Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next 30 days.

Good luck, seniors!

 

U.S. News & World Report released their 2024 college rankings yesterday.  Approximately 80% of the nearly 1,500 schools ranked returned their information, including 99 of the top 100 ranked national universities and 97 of the top 100 ranked national liberal arts colleges.

Significant changes were made to this year's methodology, including more emphasis on social mobility and outcomes and changes to weightings.

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

Here's our updated list of reported overall admission rates for the Class of 2027. Results are now available for American University, Amherst College, Barnard College, Bates College, Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brigham Young University, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon, Colby College, Colgate, Colorado College, Columbia University, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denison, Duke, Elon, Emory College and Oxford at Emory, Fairfield University, Florida State, Fordham, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, Lehigh, Macalester, Middlebury, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, NYU, Pitzer College, Rice, Santa Clara University, Smith College, Swarthmore, Tufts, Tulane, University of Georgia, University of Richmond, University of Southern California, University of Vermont, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, VillanovaWellesley, Wesleyan, Williams College and Yale.  Latest year application totals are available for many more.

Bookmark this page as we'll update frequently as more institutions report results. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our updated list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2027.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year.  Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.

Good luck, seniors!

Bowdoin College announced it admitted 850 applicants to the Class of 2027.  

A total of 10,966 applications were received, up 16 percent year over year, resulting in an admission rate of 8 percent.   

Click here for the article.

 

Here's our updated list of early decision and early action notification dates for the Class of 2027.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here where available, as well as last year's notification dates for reference.   Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next 30 days.

Good luck, seniors!

As you evaluate whether or not to submit test scores with your application, consider not only the strength of your score(s), but also the degree to which colleges of interest have embraced students without test scores.

While the colleges themselves have not been particularly forthcoming about the impact of test score submission on admission rate, the latest version of the Common Data Set (CDS) does make it possible to get a sense for the mix of the Fall 2021 entering class that submitted test scores. If 90% of the entering class submitted test scores, applying test-optional may be risky. On the flip side, if 10% of the entering class submitted test scores, you can feel pretty comfortable that applying test-optional won't put your application at risk.

This post focuses on selective, test-optional institutions where a high percentage of the Fall 2021 entering class submitted test scores. In other words, places where you may need to think twice about applying test-optional.

Note: because the Common Data Set reports the percentage submitting SAT and percentage submitting ACT but NOT the percentage submitting both, we report the results in the form of a range and an index that represents the midpoint of that range. Each school listed has an admit rate of 50 percent or less and an index of 67 percent or greater.

Click on Continue Reading to see the list.

U.S. News & World Report released their 2023 college rankings earlier today.  1,500 schools were covered nationwide and evaluated on up to 17 measures of academic quality.

This year's methodology adjusts for the decline in SAT/ACT test takers, introduces a more comprehensive measure of faculty resources and reflects changes to Carenegie Classifications made in 2021.

Princeton retains sole possession of the top spot for National Universities, and Williams College tops the list of Liberal Arts Colleges.  

Click on Continue Reading to see the rankings changes. 

Bowdoin College announced it admitted 843 applicants to the Class of 2026.  

A total of 9,446 applications were received for the year, resulting in an admission rate of 9 percent.   

Click here for the article.