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Admissions & selectivity

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# Ball State University Acceptance Rate & Admissions

Updated September 30, 2026

[Overview](/school/ball-state-university/)[Cost & aid](/school/ball-state-university/cost/)[Outcomes](/school/ball-state-university/outcomes/)Admissions[Majors](/school/ball-state-university/majors/)[Similar schools](/school/ball-state-university/similar/)

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## What is the acceptance rate at Ball State University?

Ball State University’s reported acceptance rate is 85.5%.

**Acceptance rate · Fall 2024**
85.5%

Source: College Scorecard · Fall 2024 admissions. Acceptance rates can change from year to year; this figure does not predict the current or next admission cycle.

How to interpret the acceptance rate

Ball State University admits 85.5% of applicants, a rate that sits above the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size). The figure reflects broad access rather than narrow selectivity.

## What SAT and ACT scores do Ball State University students report?

At Ball State University, enrolled students who submitted SAT scores typically fell between 1,080 and 1,260. The middle half of ACT submitters scored from 20 to 24.

These ranges reflect the twenty-fifth to seventy-fifth percentiles of recent score submitters. They are not admission cutoffs, but they show where most enrolled submitters landed.

An applicant can use the 1,080 to 1,260 SAT band and the 20 to 24 ACT band as context. The figures describe students who chose to submit scores, not every enrolled student.

The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Ball State University. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.

SAT: approximate enrolled-student range

**Approximate lower endpoint**
1080

**Approximate upper endpoint**
1260

Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff. The endpoints add section percentiles; they are not verified composite-score percentiles. A separate SAT-equivalent average is not plotted as a median. Source: College Scorecard; sum of section 25th/75th percentiles; enrolled score-submitters.

ACT: enrolled-student score range

**25th percentile**
20

**75th percentile**
24

Enrolled students who submitted scores. This range is not an admission cutoff.

Figures cover fall 2024.

## Who enrolls at Ball State University?

**Pell Grant recipients**
34.7%

**Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group**
14.9%

**First-year retention**
77.7%

Retention source: College Scorecard; full-time first-year retention.

About these student measures

The entering-student group includes part-time entrants as well as other attendance patterns.

Ball State University, a public university in Muncie, Indiana, enrolls 13,988 undergraduates and admits 85.5% of applicants. That rate is above the median of 78.1% for comparable institutions (same type and size), a sign of broad access.

Financial need is widespread on campus: 34.7% of undergraduates receive Pell Grants. An estimated 14.9% of students enter as transfers or part-time students, which means a sizable share of the student body began college elsewhere.

Pell-eligible and transfer applicants should expect to find many peers who share their background, given the campus's sizable Pell and transfer populations.

The first-time full-time cohort at Ball State University has a [six-year graduation rate](/analysis/what-the-graduation-rate-doesnt-count/) of 62.3%, which is below the peer median of 65.0% for comparable institutions. First-year retention is 77.7%, also below the peer median of 83.1%.

Pell recipients in that cohort complete at 57.7%, 4.6 percentage points below the overall rate.

## Data & methodology

Sources and reporting periods: [methodology](/methodology/).

Analysis and methodology by [Daniel Rogers](/about/#founder), founder of College Azimuth.

Explanatory text is AI-assisted drafting checked against those figures; it is not an additional data source.

Admission rates describe past applicants, not an individual’s chance of admission; confirm requirements and deadlines with the institution.

Figure notes link to sources and limitations. [About College Azimuth](/about/).