Admissions & selectivity
Harvard University Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Harvard University?
Harvard University’s reported acceptance rate is 3.6%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 3.6%
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.
Source: Harvard University Common Data Set 2025-26, C1 · first-time, first-year students.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
Harvard University admits 3.6% of applicants, a figure far below the median of 71.2% for comparable institutions (same type and size). In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 47,893 applicants, 2,003 admitted students, and 1,675 enrolled first-year students.
What SAT and ACT scores do enrolled Harvard University students report?
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported that enrolled first-year students who submitted ACT scores had a middle 50% range of 33 to 35. 27% of the class submitted.
Among enrolled first-year students with a reported class rank, 95% were in the upper tenth of their high-school class and 99% were in the upper quarter. An applicant can use the 33 and 35 ACT figures as a benchmark for the academic profile of recent entering students.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Harvard University. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
27% of entering students submitted ACT scores
- 25th percentile
- 33
- Median
- 35
- 75th percentile
- 35
CDS 2025-26 · enrolled first-year score submitters. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Source: Harvard University Common Data Set 2025-26, C9 · Enrolled first-time, first-year score submitters.
Who enrolls at Harvard University?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 16.4%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 0.8%
- First-year retention
- 98.3%
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.
The university enrolls 7,601 undergraduates. Pell Grant recipients make up 16.4% of the student body, and an estimated 0.8% of undergraduates enter as transfers or part-time students.
The campus is overwhelmingly composed of students who began as first-year entrants, with a Pell-eligible presence that is a small share of the undergraduate population. Pell-eligible and transfer applicants should review the university's financial aid and articulation policies early, as both populations are small on campus.
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 2,042 transfer applicants, 13 admitted transfer students, and 12 enrolled transfer students.
Harvard University keeps 98.3% of first-time full-time students into a second year, and its six-year graduation rate reaches 97.6%. Both figures sit well above the peer medians of 83.4% and 68.8% for comparable institutions.
Pell Grant recipients in the same entering cohort complete at 92.9%, below the overall six-year rate by 4.7 percentage points. In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported a retention rate of 98% for the first-time, full-time fall 2024 entering class.
Enrolled students can expect a university where nearly all first-year students return and where graduation outcomes for the entering class as a whole substantially exceed those of comparable institutions.
Data & methodology
Sources and reporting periods: methodology.
Analysis and methodology by Daniel Rogers, 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.