Admissions & selectivity
Harvey Mudd College Acceptance Rate & Admissions
What is the acceptance rate at Harvey Mudd College?
Harvey Mudd College’s reported acceptance rate is 12.7%.
- Acceptance rate · Fall 2024
- 12.7%
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: Harvey Mudd College Common Data Set 2025-26, C1 · first-time, first-year students.
How to interpret the acceptance rate
Harvey Mudd College admits 12.7% of applicants, a rate that sits well below the median of 75.7% for comparable institutions (same type and size). In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 5,213 first-year applicants and admitted 641, with 234 enrolling.
What SAT and ACT scores do enrolled Harvey Mudd College students report?
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, Harvey Mudd College reported that enrolled first-year students who submitted SAT scores had a middle range of 1500 to 1560. 55% of the entering class submitted SAT scores.
For ACT submitters, the middle range was 35 to 36, with 21% of the class submitting ACT scores. The university's own SAT range of 1500 to 1560 and ACT range of 35 to 36 describe enrolled students who provided scores, not admission cutoffs.
Among enrolled first-year students with a reported high-school class rank, 95% placed in the highest tenth of their high-school class. 100% were in the upper fourth of their high-school class.
Only 18% of the entering class reported a rank, so the figures describe a subset.
The ranges below describe enrolled students who submitted test scores at Harvey Mudd College. Use them as academic context, then check the university’s current testing policy for your application cycle.
55% of entering students submitted SAT scores
- 25th percentile
- 1500
- Median
- 1510
- 75th percentile
- 1560
CDS 2025-26 · enrolled first-year score submitters. This range is not an admission cutoff.
21% of entering students submitted ACT scores
- 25th percentile
- 35
- Median
- 35
- 75th percentile
- 36
CDS 2025-26 · enrolled first-year score submitters. This range is not an admission cutoff.
Source: Harvey Mudd College Common Data Set 2025-26, C9 · Enrolled first-time, first-year score submitters.
Who enrolls at Harvey Mudd College?
- Pell Grant recipients
- 15.2%
- Entering students outside the first-time, full-time group
- 1.7%
- First-year retention
- 96.4%
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.
Harvey Mudd College enrolls 921 undergraduates, a small community where 15.2% of students receive Pell Grants and an estimated 1.7% arrive as transfers or part-time students. The campus is overwhelmingly built around a single entry point: the first-year class.
In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported 5,213 first-year applicants, 641 admitted, and 234 enrolled. For transfer students, the numbers are much smaller: 136 applicants, 4 admitted, and 2 enrolled.
A student considering Harvey Mudd should understand that the transfer path is narrow. The institution's own figures show a handful of transfer seats each year.
The estimated transfer share among undergraduates confirms that nearly everyone starts in the fall of their first year.
Students who enroll at Harvey Mudd College tend to stay and finish. The federal data shows 96.4% of full-time bachelor's-seeking entrants return for a second year, above the peer median of 74.2% for comparable institutions.
The six-year graduation rate for the first-time full-time cohort is 91.9%, also above the peer median of 54.9%. In its 2025-26 Common Data Set, the university reported that 95% of the first-time, full-time fall 2024 entering class returned for a second year. An enrolled student can expect strong persistence and completion outcomes.
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.