Acceptance Rate Data

[Anonymous]

Where does one find the most accurate data for a college regarding acceptance rates for a certain GPA and SAT score? We are drawing up a list of schools where our DC will be in the 75%, 50-75%, etc. for GPA and test scores (could be SAT or ACT). The goal is a list of safety, targets and reaches for based on those percentile categories.

[Anonymous]

common data set

[Anonymous]

CDS does not break it down that way. I am unaware of anything that does. Years ago, I remember some big state U’s had charts that would tell that info but I have not seen it in decades

[Anonymous]

College Navigator

https://nces.ed.gov/collegenavigator/

[Anonymous]

If your high school uses Naviance, check the scattergrams generally. (*Ignore the Naviance categorizations of reach, match, and safety, as they are wrong.)

There is no automatic tool. Scores are easy enough to find, but keep in mind that classes of 2025 and 2026 were test optional, skewing score ranges. Try class of 2024, freshmen fall 2020, in the 2020-2021 Common Data Set section C9, for each school.

GPA is not standardized, and not all schools report any GPA info, but try around sections C10-C12 of the Common Data Set.

[Anonymous]

And for acceptance rates, look for the most recent rate for class of 2026. It should be somewhere on the college's website.

[Anonymous]

I helped my kid create an initial list using the college board site (college board.org). We also used (and paid for) college kickstart which is good at updating results based on newly released data.

Worked great for my kid who was accepted where predicted and unsurprisingly denied at the “lottery” schools