Rona Aydin is the founder of Oriel Admissions, a Princeton-based college admissions consulting firm advising families nationwide on elite university admissions strategy. An Oxford University graduate, Rona leads a deeply experienced team whose distinctive 360 approach treats every part of the application - academics, testing, activities, essays, and interviews - as one connected strategy.
Duke admitted 13.8% of Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2030 - 847 students from 6,159 applications, against a 3.7% Regular Decision rate. The rate almost went unpublished this cycle, the admit count has held in a narrow band for years, and the trend tells the rest.
Brown admitted 16.5% of Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2030 - 890 students from 5,406 applications, against a Regular Decision rate near 4%. The four-cycle trend runs 13.0% to 14.4% to 17.9% to 16.5%, and the swing tracks the testing requirement. The full numbers and the strategy.
Vanderbilt admitted 11.9% of Early Decision applicants for the Class of 2030 - 920 students from a record 7,727 applications across ED I and ED II, against a 2.8% Regular Decision rate. The seven-cycle slide, the pool math behind the four-times advantage, and how to decide whether to bind.
Penn last fully reported its Early Decision acceptance rate for the Class of 2028: 14.2%, with 1,235 admitted from 8,683 applications, against a 4.1% Regular Decision rate. Since then: a record pool, an 18% application decline, and a disclosure blackout. The full trend and the strategy.
NYU does not publish its Early Decision acceptance rate. What is known: roughly 25,000 ED I and ED II applications for the Class of 2030, more than half the class filled through the binding rounds, and a 7.7% overall rate for the Class of 2029. The full picture and the strategy.
Columbia has not published an Early Decision acceptance rate since the Class of 2026 cycle. The last complete data shows 13.2% - 795 admits from 6,009 applications for the Class of 2028 - against a 2.8% Regular Decision rate. The Class of 2030 pool fell to 5,497, down 8.5% over two cycles. The full picture.
Harvard has withheld its Restrictive Early Action numbers for two consecutive cycles. The last verified rate is 8.7% - 692 admitted from 7,921 applications for the Class of 2028 - alongside an 83.1% deferral rate. What changed for the Class of 2030, and how to read an early round with no numbers.
Early Decision acceptance rates run two to four times higher than Regular Decision at most top universities. The complete school-by-school table for the Classes of 2028 through 2030, the multiplier behind the early advantage, and which schools have stopped publishing their numbers.
Yale admitted 10.9% of Single-Choice Early Action applicants to the Class of 2030 - 779 students from 7,140 applications - and published every number the same day. The five-cycle trend, why Yale denies where Harvard defers, the test-flexible wrinkle, and the strategy.
Early Action acceptance rates at the five most-watched non-binding programs: Yale published 10.9% and MIT 5.5% for the Class of 2030, while Harvard, Princeton and Stanford withheld their numbers. The verified figures, the transparency divide, and how REA, SCEA and open EA actually differ.
Columbia became the last Ivy to reinstate the SAT and ACT, making scores required at all eight schools from the 2027-28 cycle. The complete school-by-school timeline, the two schools still optional for 2026-27, and how the high school Classes of 2027 and 2028 should plan.
Northeastern completed its merger with Marymount Manhattan in 2026, converting an Upper East Side campus into Northeastern University - New York City. The first-year pathway, the four-year performing arts cohort and what the expansion means for applicants.
Vanderbilt opens its first campus outside Nashville in fall 2026: a 13-building Chelsea block with an undergraduate semester program and a new MS in Business and Technology. The timeline, the programs and what the New York expansion means for applicants.
Vanderbilt will open a San Francisco campus in 2027, anchored by a $75 million Huang family gift and the new Huang College of Art, Architecture and Design. The timeline, the programs and what the expansion means for applicants facing record selectivity in Nashville.
TL;DR: The MIT interview is conducted by Educational Counselors – a network of more than 3,500 MIT graduates worldwide – and is offered whenever possible after you submit your application (MIT Admissions, 2026). It is deliberately informal: held in person where feasible or virtually by agreement, with most Early Action conversations in November and most … Continued
Brown publishes no deferral statistics and gives deferred applicants exact instructions: mid year grades plus one brief update. Here is what a Brown deferral means and how to extend the open curriculum argument with evidence.