With all of the media attention surrounding legacy admissions, we thought it would be helpful to compile a list of selective public and private institutions that don't consider legacy status as part of the admissions process.

To come up with the list, we pulled data from the 2022-23 Common Data Set (or Fall 2022 NCES database) for each institution in our coverage universe with acceptance rates of 50 percent or less. We then cross-checked with recent announcements to identify recent changes to policies, such as with Wesleyan University and Occidental College.

Of the 138 schools currently in our coverage universe with acceptance rates of 50 percent or less, 33 percent do not consider legacy status—42 percent for publics and 25 percent for privates.

Bookmark this page, as we expect to update it periodically with institutions opting to drop legacy consideration for this cycle.

Click on Continue Reading for the list

Tired of Googling constantly for the latest application requirements? Look no further — let College Kickstart help you stay on top of your game. 

In search of schools that offer financial aid to international applicants?

Look no further! We've compiled a list of 30 schools worth considering. To create the list, we considered two factors: international student representation and the breadth and depth of international aid packages.  

We've also included admission rates for each institution and whether aid packages are need and/or merit-based.

Click on Continue Reading for the list

In search of schools with no extra Common App essays?  Look no further, check out our list of popular schools here, updated for the 2023-24 application season.  

The list includes schools that simply require the base essay (e.g. personal statement). Keep in mind that many of these schools may have "optional" prompts which you might want to complete anyway to strengthen your application.  

If you're a student or parent with a College Kickstart Plus or Premium subscription, this information is already available to you as part of our key application requirements view.

Click on Continue Reading for the list.

While the vast majority of institutions in our coverage universe offer some form of test-optional admissions, some have completely eliminated standardized testing from consideration—even if you submit scores.

Click on Continue Reading to see our list of schools offering test-blind/score-free admissions for the 2023-24 cycle. For your convenience, we've included admit rates, test score ranges and links to each school's standardized test policy details to help you find suitable candidates for your college list.

College Kickstart subscribers, this is automatically updated and visible as part of the requirements view.

Hot off the press!  We've had a chance to review the preliminary Fall 2023 admissions data released recently by the University of California and we thought it would be helpful to summarize it and share our key findings.  

Overall freshman admission rates increased systemwide from 60 percent to 63 percent year-over-year, fueled by a 2.1 percent decline in applications and 3.3 percent increase in acceptances. If you're an out of state or international student, pay close attention...there continues to be a window of opportunity to take advantage of favorable rates at a couple of UC campuses.

Click on Continue Reading for the details.

Interested in pursuing an interdisciplinary field that delves into how individual states and global interactions impact diplomacy and conflict? If so, consider majoring in International Relations (IR)!

In International Relations, students can evaluate how global, regional, and domestic factors influence relations between state actors. Given the vast variety of tracks within international relations, such as an emphasis on international economics, human rights, or global health, international relations also serves as a perfect interdisciplinary supplement to other fields of study. Studying International Relations prepares students for a wide variety of careers, ranging from law to politics, and the major continues to expand as the world becomes increasingly globalized.

To help you evaluate your options, we've curated a list of great undergraduate International Relations programs in the United States based on Foreign Policy magazine's Best International Relations Schools in the World. Our list covers a mix of private and public universities and liberal arts colleges, and includes admission rates, test profiles, program highlights and links for more information.

Click on Continue Reading for the list

Many students care deeply about the environment and sustainability and want to incorporate their passion about the Earth into their college experience. But how to choose a college that best facilitates that?

Colleges' commitment to climate action manifests in a variety of ways. Many colleges focus on implementing sustainability on campus, so students can rest assured that not only is their day-to-day life at the institution they attend eco-friendly, but also that their college is upholding a commitment to care for the environment alongside the students. Some colleges prioritize funding environmental research. Colleges tackle this from different angles, including politics, economics, engineering, ecology, earth science, and more. The research a college conducts is important for prospective undergraduates to consider because they will get to learn directly from the faculty responsible for such meaningful work and may even have the opportunity to contribute to the research themselves. Finally, although most colleges offer some course of study related to the environment, certain colleges go above and beyond, whether that be through the breadth of courses and educational resources focused on sustainability, the strength and rigor of one particular program, or the number of majors beyond environmental science that relate to climate action.

From a multitude of sources with differing perspectives and priorities, we've comprised a list of the 30 best colleges for climate action. Continue reading to learn more about each.

Here's our updated list of reported overall admission rates for the Class of 2027. Results are now available for American University, Amherst College, Barnard College, Bates College, Boston College, Boston University, Bowdoin, Brigham Young University, Brown, Bryn Mawr, Bucknell, Carnegie Mellon, Colby College, Colgate, Colorado College, Columbia University, Cornell, Dartmouth, Denison, Duke, Elon, Emory College and Oxford at Emory, Fairfield University, Florida State, Fordham, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Holy Cross, Johns Hopkins, Lehigh, Macalester, Middlebury, MIT, Northwestern, Notre Dame, NYU, Pitzer College, Rice, Santa Clara University, Smith College, Swarthmore, Tufts, Tulane, University of Georgia, University of Richmond, University of Southern California, University of Vermont, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, VillanovaWellesley, Wesleyan, Williams College and Yale.  Latest year application totals are available for many more.

Bookmark this page as we'll update frequently as more institutions report results. 

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our updated list of reported early decision and early action admission rates for the Class of 2027.

This list includes results from Amherst College, Boston College, Boston University, Brown, Colorado College, Dartmouth, Duke, Emory, Fordham University, Georgetown, Georgia Tech, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Middlebury, MIT, Notre Dame, Rice, University of Georgia, USC, University of Virginia, Vanderbilt, Washington University in St. Louis, Williams College and Yale.  

Bookmark this page, as we'll be updating it frequently over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

For those of you who have been waitlisted at one of your top choices, here's our initial update of Class of 2027 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 Fall 2022 waitlist statistics from 101 private and public institutions.  Our analysis paints the following picture:

• The number of students admitted from the waitlist declined 3 percent year over year from 26,000 for the Class of 2025 to 20,000 for the Class of 2026

• On average, 19 percent of Fall 2022 students accepting a place on a waitlist were admitted, unchanged from the previous year

• Students admitted from the waitlist accounted for 8 percent of Fall 2022 enrollments, down slightly from 9 percent for Fall 2021

• 62 percent of the schools sampled admitted 10 percent or less of the students accepting a place on the waitlist for Fall 2022 (vs. 57 percent for the Fall 2021)

Be sure to bookmark this page as we expect to be updating status over the next several weeks.

Click Continue Reading for the list.

Here's our updated list of regular decision notification dates for the Class of 2027.  As many of you know, schools often post results in advance of their "official" notification dates, so we've compiled the most recently updated dates for you here, along with the notification dates from last year.  Bookmark this site, as we'll post updates often.

Good luck, seniors!

Georgetown announced today that it admitted 13 percent of applicants to the Class of 2027.  

A total of 3,263 students were admitted out of 25,519 applicants.  

Click here for the news article.

Duke announced today that it offered regular admission to 2,148 students for the Class of 2027.

A total of 44,489 regular decision applications were received, resulting in a regular decision acceptance rate of 4.6 percent.  

Click here for the article.

Emory University announced today it admitted 5,445 applicants to the Class of 2027.

A total of 33,534 applications were received.

A total of 3,428 were offered admission to Emory College and 3,335 were offered admission to Oxford College.  61 percent of applicants applied to both colleges and 1,376 were accepted to both.

Click here for the news release.