Class of 2026 Waitlist Notification Dates and Stats
For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here’s our initial update of Class of 2026 waitlist notification dates and status where available.
To get a sense for what’s happening at the macro level, we took a look at recently released Class of 2025 waitlist statistics from 120 private and public institutions. Our analysis paints the following picture:
- The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 46 percent year over year from 61,000 for the Class of 2024 to 33,000 for the Class of 2025
- On average, 15 percent of Class of 2025 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, down from 32 percent in for the Class of 2024
- Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 13 percent of Class of 2025 enrollments, down from 27 percent for the Class of 2024
- 61 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for the Class of 2025 (vs. 28 percent for the Class of 2024)
As expected, surge in waitlist activity brought on by the pandemic to more normal levels with the Class of 2025, as institutions worked through a surge in gap year deferrals, vaccinations kicked into gear and students were finally able to return to campus. We anticipate waitlist activity to continue to moderate for the Class of 2026.
Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.
Click Continue Reading for the list.
Class of 2026 Waitlist Notification Dates and 2021 Statistics
College Kickstart LLC
| Institution | Waitlist Offered (2023) | Waitlist Accepted (2023) | Waitlist Admitted (2023) | Admit Rate (2023) | Notification Date | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| American | 3,589 | 1,082 | 81 | 7% | by 5/31 | Link |
| Amherst | 1,285 | 788 | 0 | 0% | Link | |
| Bates | 2,473 | 1,245 | 2 | 0% | most by 6/30, no later than 8/1 | Link |
| Boston College | Reduced WL offers by 40%, expect active list of ~4,500 | ADMISSIONS | ||||
| Brown | 0 | 0 | 28 | begins mid-May, likely to conclude mid-summer; expect 1,000-1,500 students to accept WL invitation | Link | |
| Bryn Mawr | 1,026 | 640 | 17 | 3% | ||
| Bucknell | 3,743 | 1,736 | 64 | 4% | ||
| Cal Poly Pomona | 3,996 | 1,851 | 152 | 8% | by 6/1 | Link |
| Cal Poly SLO | 9,829 | 0 | 978 | by 7/15 | Link | |
| Caltech | 268 | 213 | 0 | 0% | Link | |
| Carleton | 1,367 | 580 | 11 | 2% | ||
| Carnegie Mellon | 8,792 | 5,319 | 35 | 1% | priority waitlist begins 5/5, regular waitlist begins 6/1 | Link |
| Case Western | 11,494 | 4,992 | 364 | 7% | Link | |
| Chapman | 2,154 | 836 | 499 | 60% | after 5/1 | Link |
| Claremont McKenna | 897 | 589 | 9 | 2% | ||
| Holy Cross | 1,795 | 731 | 5 | 1% | Link | |
| William & Mary | 4,720 | 2,417 | 38 | 2% | by 8/1; update mid-June | Link |
| Colorado College | 739 | 174 | 0 | 0% | ||
| Connecticut College | 1,966 | 914 | 11 | 1% | after 5/1 | Link |
| Cornell | 7,746 | 5,800 | 24 | 0% | Link | |
| Dartmouth | 2,669 | 2,120 | 0 | 0% | by 6/30 | Link |
| Dickinson | 603 | 199 | 4 | 2% | begins mid-April; ~600 offered waitlist spot | Link |
| Emory | 6,539 | 3,883 | 21 | 1% | 6,447 offered waitlist to Emory College; 3,498 to Oxford College | ADMISSIONS |
| Olin | 49 | 38 | 0 | 0% | begins 5/1 | Link |
| Georgetown | by 5/15 | ADMISSIONS | ||||
| Georgia Tech | 6,613 | 4,916 | 275 | 6% | Open as of 5/25 | Link |
| Grinnell | by early July | Link | ||||
| Hamilton | 2,964 | 1,782 | 0 | 0% | begins 5/1 | Link |
| Harvey Mudd | 648 | 433 | 0 | 0% | update 2nd week of May; 612 applicants offered place on alternate list | Link |
| Haverford | 1,593 | 955 | 6 | 1% | ||
| James Madison | 983 | 595 | 132 | 22% | majority in June, as late as 8/1 | Link |
| Johns Hopkins | after 5/1 | Link | ||||
| Kenyon | 1,826 | 1,027 | 1 | 0% | by 6/30 | Link |
| Lafayette | 1,836 | 763 | 32 | 4% | ||
| Lehigh | 4,124 | 2,079 | 102 | 5% | Link | |
| Lewis & Clark | 386 | 132 | 2 | 2% | by 6/30 | Link |
| Macalester | 1,218 | 535 | 0 | 0% | by 5/31 | Link |
| Middlebury | 1,742 | 1,716 | 2 | 0% | ||
| MIT | update by 5/15 | Link | ||||
| Mt. Holyoke | 530 | 276 | 2 | 1% | after 5/1 | Link |
| Muhlenberg | by early June | Link | ||||
| NYU | by 8/1 | Link | ||||
| NC State | 7,289 | 2,340 | 14 | 1% | by 6/15 | Link |
| Oberlin | 1,491 | 1,368 | 100 | 7% | Link | |
| Occidental | 1,569 | 747 | 69 | 9% | ||
| Ohio State | 854 | 207 | 0 | 0% | by 6/1 | Link |
| Penn State | 2,481 | 1,519 | 1,451 | 96% | ||
| Pitzer | 814 | 357 | 0 | 0% | ||
| Pomona | 840 | 570 | 27 | 5% | update early-mid May | Link |
| Princeton | 1,265 | 1,000 | 150 | 15% | Link | |
| Providence | 2,700 | 867 | 577 | 67% | update mid-May | Link |
| Purdue | 6,048 | 3,442 | 13 | 0% | ||
| Reed | 3,285 | 1,066 | 1 | 0% | ||
| Rhodes | 1,380 | 687 | 1 | 0% | ||
| Saint Michaels | typically by mid-June | Link | ||||
| Santa Clara | 4,849 | 2,951 | 138 | 5% | typically thru June | Link |
| Scripps | 701 | 320 | 1 | 0% | begins late May | Link |
| Sewanee | 537 | 144 | 11 | 8% | ||
| Skidmore | 2,145 | 1,044 | 52 | 5% | ||
| Smith | 1,717 | 891 | 0 | 0% | ||
| SMU | 1,787 | 821 | 236 | 29% | Link | |
| Stanford | 652 | 535 | 61 | 11% | by 7/1 | Link |
| SUNY Stony Brook | 5,741 | 2,900 | 1,166 | 40% | ||
| TCU | 1,745 | 733 | 78 | 11% | typically final two weeks of April | Link |
| Trinity College | late April to 7/31 | Link | ||||
| Tufts | 2,579 | 1,264 | 0 | 0% | by early June | Link |
| Tulane | 5,072 | 1,871 | 0 | 0% | Open as of 6/25 but enrollment currently at on target | Link |
| Union College | 541 | 218 | 15 | 7% | beginning early May | Link |
| UC Berkeley | 11,725 | 6,871 | 359 | 5% | between May and August | Link |
| UC Davis | between May and August | Link | ||||
| UC Irvine | 8,765 | 1,288 | 189 | 15% | between May and August | Link |
| UCLA | 15,242 | 9,897 | 214 | 2% | between May and August | Link |
| UC Merced | 0 | 0 | 0 | between May and August | Link | |
| UC Riverside | 12,162 | 5,997 | 4,786 | 80% | between May and August | Link |
| UCSD | 25,419 | 8,835 | 0 | 0% | by 6/30 | Link |
| UCSB | 14,076 | 9,762 | 2,093 | 21% | early May - July | Link |
| UCSC | 19,170 | 12,541 | 6,633 | 53% | by 8/31 | Link |
| Georgia | early May - July; 3,000 on waitlist | Link | ||||
| UIUC | by late June | Link | ||||
| UMass Amherst | 4,056 | 2,361 | 1,055 | 45% | beginning mid-May | Link |
| University of Miami | 13,095 | 4,643 | 13 | 0% | by 6/15 | Link |
| Michigan | 17,805 | 13,063 | 68 | 1% | typically by mid-June | Link |
| UNC - Chapel Hill | 8,957 | 6,564 | 167 | 3% | by 6/30 | Link |
| Notre Dame | 0 | 0 | 0 | Expect 50-150 students will ultimately be admitted | Link | |
| URichmond | 3,891 | 886 | 9 | 1% | Link | |
| USD | 3,711 | 1,467 | 378 | 26% | after 5/1 | Link |
| Virginia | 8,690 | 4,924 | 86 | 2% | closed | Link |
| Washington | 10,239 | 4,565 | 775 | 17% | Link | |
| Wisconsin | 8,128 | 4,335 | 14 | 0% | by 7/31 | Link |
| Vanderbilt | 0 | 0 | 181 | early May - end of June | Link | |
| Vassar | 1,526 | 634 | 96 | 15% | early May to 7/1 | Link |
| Virginia Tech | 14,952 | 9,176 | 3,292 | 36% | by 7/1 | Link |
| Washington and Lee | 2,207 | 1,150 | 11 | 1% | after 5/1 | Link |
| WUSTL | by 6/30 | Link | ||||
| Wellesley | 0 | 0 | 0 | before 8/1 | Link | |
| Wesleyan | 3,585 | 2,031 | 10 | 0% | by 6/30 | Link |
| Wheaton - IL | by 8/1; updates at end of May, June & July | Link | ||||
| Williams | 2,371 | 929 | 1 | 0% | begins in May | Link |
| WPI | 2,413 | 978 | 0 | 0% | ||
| Yale | 1,030 | 774 | 4 | 1% | 1,000 offered WL spot | Link |