New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Yale admits 3.7% of applicant pool
NEW HAVEN — Yale accepted 3.7 percent of first-year students for the class of 2028 from the largest applicant pool in the university’s history, Yale announced Thursday.
The more selective admission cycle follows last year’s 4.5 percent acceptance rate and the largest first-year class in the university’s history caused by a record high “yield” of admitted students who accepted offers.
For the class of 2028, nearly 57,500 students applied, and 2,146 applicants were offered admission. They represent all 50 states, the District of Columbia, two U.S. territories and 62 countries, according to a news release.
“The diverse range of strengths, ambitions, and lived experiences we saw in this year’s applicant pool was inspiring,” Jeremiah Quinlan, dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, said in the release.
“We gauge the success of our outreach efforts by these qualities, and not by ttotal number of applications. But it is heartening to see that Yale College continues to attract exceptionally promising students from all backgrounds.”
The recently admitted class is the last that applied under Yale’s test-optional policy, which it instated in 2020 in reaction to the COVID-19 pandemic.
In February, the university announced it would again require applicants to submit test scores, but for the first time adding Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate as accepted exam scores as well as ACT or SAT scores, according to an announcement.
This class was also the first to apply under new practices the university adopted following a June 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that ended affirmative action
The lawsuits, which considered admissions practices at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina, were brought by Students for Fair Admissions.
Students for Fair Admissions also sued Yale in 2021, but it later dropped the lawsuit following the ruling on Harvard and UNC and hearing Yale’s plans to comply with the ruling, the university wrote in a September admissions update.
The university announced in September that admissions officers would receive new training on reviewing applications and would not be able to access information about the applicants’ selfreported in college admissions. race and ethnicity, among a host of other outreach efforts. The university shared updates and new efforts in February.
Students for Fair Admissions brought its action against Yale following the Justice Department dropping a 2020 lawsuit that said the university’s admissions practices are unfair to white and Asian students and favor African American applicants with similar academic scores.
The department had found Yale illegally discriminated against AsianAmerican and white undergraduate applicants in August 2020, but that determination letter was withdrawn along with the suit.