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Ivy Day 2023 a rough one as Harvard, Columbia admit less than 4%

Students were glued to their computers Thursday at 7 p.m. for Ivy Day, the day admissions letters are sent.
Students walk through Harvard Yard on the campus of Harvard University.
Posted at 2:04 PM, Mar 31, 2023

It was a brutal night for the high-achieving high school seniors around the country who applied to the eight Ivy League universities.

Students were glued to their computers Thursday at 7 p.m. for Ivy Day, the day admissions letters are sent. Instead of fat or skinny envelopes of yesteryear, the results are delivered electronically at the same time. 

For the Class of 2027, admissions to elite college continues to be challenging, a trend that hasn’t shifted within the past decade. Acceptance rate at Harvard University was 3.4%, a slight increase from last year’s 3.2%. Admitting 1,942 out of this year’s applicant pool of 56,937 students. 

Yale University showed a 4.35% acceptance rate, the lowest in recent history, compared with a 4.46% acceptance rate last year. Brown University's acceptance rate this year was 5%, almost even with last year. Columbia University’s acceptance rate was 3.9%, slightly higher than last year's 3.7% rate. The smallest of the Ivy League schools, Dartmouth College had an acceptance rate of 6% this year.

Cornell University and Princeton University established policies of not revealing their acceptance rates. Admissions figures for the University of Pennsylvania for the Class of 2027 were not yet available Friday morning. 

The Ivy League is an American college athletic conference with eight private universities in the Northeast. The term Ivy League is used to connote elite colleges with academic excellence.

Ivy League colleges do not offer merit scholarships, only financial-based aid. The reported cost of attendance Columbia University in 2022 including tuition, room and board was $85,967.

Students walk on the Stanford University campus.

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