Harvard University accepts roughly 1 in 27 applicants — among the most selective in the U.S.
The headline numbers, drawn from CDS sections A–H.
Per-cycle Common Data Set values. Enrolled is first-year matriculants (CDS B1), not total undergraduate population. Blank cells mean the field was not published in that year's source CDS.
| Year | Admit rate | Enrolled | 6-yr grad | Retention | SAT (50th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024-2025 | 3.6% | 1,647 | 98.0% | 98.0% | — |
| 2023-2024 | 3.5% | 1,645 | 98.0% | 99.0% | — |
| 2022-2023 | 3.2% | 1,646 | 97.8% | 98.0% | — |
| 2021-2022 | 4.0% | 1,951 | 97.6% | 96.0% | — |
| 2020-2021 | 5.0% | 1,407 | 98.0% | 75.0% | — |
Cross-admits and statistical look-alikes, surfaced from the CollegeNumbers peer model.
Comparative observations derived from this school's reported CDS values and from IPEDS / College Scorecard reference data. Every claim is grounded in a number — no editorial overlay.
Among the most selective universities in the U.S.
Harvard University's 3.6% admit rate sits in a tight cohort of 8 CDS Atlas schools admitting below 5% — joined by California Institute of Technology, Columbia, Stanford, Princeton, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 42 percentage points.
Harvard University's 98.0% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 41.7 pp.
Admit-rate selectivity has held steady across reporting cycles.
Harvard University's admit rate has stayed in a narrow 3.2%–5.0% band across 5 reporting cycles — a 1.8% spread.
Cross-admit cohort is tightly banded on selectivity.
The 7 schools Harvard University applicants most commonly also apply to sit within a 1.9 pp admit-rate band (3.8%–5.7%) — candidates competitive at any one are typically competitive at all.
First-year retention is among the highest in the index.
Harvard University's 98.0% first-year retention exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 76.8% by 21.2 pp — a strong signal of student-institution fit at intake.
Sources: each school's officially-published Common Data Set; IPEDS / College Scorecard for federal comparisons. Methodology →
Compare every CDS field — admissions, aid, outcomes — side by side.
Open in CollegeNumbers compareThe Common Data Set is a standardized reporting form U.S. colleges file annually — sections A through J covering admissions selectivity, enrollment, aid, faculty resources, and outcomes. CollegeNumbers extracts every value directly from each school's officially published CDS PDF, xlsx, docx, or HTML, then normalizes into a unified schema.
Federal data layers — College Scorecard, EADA athletics, Clery campus safety, FSA financial responsibility — are joined on top. Every value traces back to its primary source. All covered schools →