Northwestern University's admit rate has fallen 25.1 percentage points across the 25 reported years on file.
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 | 7.7% | 2,104 | 95.0% | 98.0% | 1,540 |
| 2023-2024 | 7.2% | 2,109 | 96.0% | 97.0% | 1,530 |
| 2022-2023 | 7.2% | 2,038 | — | 97.8% | 750 |
| 2021-2022 | 7.0% | 2,086 | 95.2% | 98.6% | — |
| 2020-2021 | 9.3% | 1,901 | 94.9% | 97.0% | — |
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.
Highly selective — top tier of CDS Atlas schools.
Northwestern University's 7.7% admit rate places it among 50 of 334 covered schools admitting below 15% (~15.0% of the index).
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 39 percentage points.
Northwestern University's 95.0% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 38.7 pp.
Admit-rate selectivity has held steady across reporting cycles.
Northwestern University's admit rate has stayed in a narrow 7.0%–9.3% band across 5 reporting cycles — a 2.3% spread.
First-year retention is among the highest in the index.
Northwestern 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.
Cross-admit cohort is tightly banded on selectivity.
The 7 schools Northwestern University applicants most commonly also apply to sit within a 2.1 pp admit-rate band (3.6%–5.7%) — candidates competitive at any one are typically competitive at all.
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 →