Washington and Lee University's admit rate has fallen 13.8 percentage points across the 8 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) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | 13.5% | 499 | 95.9% | 97.5% | 1,480 |
| 2024-2025 | 14.0% | 472 | 93.9% | 96.6% | 1,480 |
| 2023-2024 | — | — | — | 95.4% | — |
| 2022-2023 | 17.0% | 476 | 94.0% | 97.5% | — |
| 2021-2022 | 18.9% | 484 | 93.6% | 96.1% | — |
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.
Washington and Lee University's 13.5% 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 40 percentage points.
Washington and Lee University's 95.9% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 39.6 pp.
Admit rate has tightened 5.3 percentage points over 4 reporting cycles.
Washington and Lee University's admit rate fell from 18.9% (2021-2022) to 13.5% (2025-2026) — a 5.3 pp drop. Year-over-year: 18.9 → 17.0 → 14.0 → 13.5. A snapshot of the current year alone would hide this structural shift.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools Washington and Lee University applicants most commonly also apply to range from 12.6% admit to 48.7% admit — a 36.1 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
First-year retention is among the highest in the index.
Washington and Lee University's 97.5% first-year retention exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 76.8% by 20.7 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 →