2025 Early Decision (ED) and Early Action (EA) College Admissions Trends
Where are CTK Class of 2025 students gaining admission in the early rounds this year?
Our own CTK students have been accepted to dozens of colleges so far, including the most selective national schools like Cornell, Princeton, and Vanderbilt; mid-size urban colleges like Villanova University, American University, Northeastern University, and Drexel; large national universities like the University of Michigan, University of Virginia, Ohio State University, University of Maryland, and the University of Wisconsin; and selective small liberal arts schools like Vassar College, Smith College, and the University of Richmond.
We are celebrating these early wins with our students! Follow CTK College Coach on Instagram to see acceptances as they roll in.
What are the trends for early decision and early acceptance for Class of 2025 compared to outcomes in the last few years?
The trend continues: more college applications year on year from more applicants
As we summarized in our newsletters last year and the year before–College Acceptance Trends for Class of 2024 and Early Action Acceptance Rates for High School Class of 2023, US colleges continue to defer large percentages of students, leaving many early action (and some early decision) applicants waiting until spring for a final decision.
One major factor driving this is the continuing trend of increased applicants (and an increased number of applications submitted per student). The total volume of college applications submitted by November 1st in 2024 (early action or early decision) was up a whopping 10% from 2023. Moreover, First Gen students applying early grew by 19% over last year, and those applying for fee waiver eligibility grew by 13% in the early action round in 2024. Those are great upward trends for under-resourced students, but the overall increase in college applications means that colleges continue to struggle with enrollment management.
Enrollment management: What’s that, now? More applications submitted means very high numbers of deferred students in the early action and early decision rounds
It’s a vicious, self-reinforcing cycle: higher application volume leads colleges to defer more applicants to the regular decision round (and, ultimately, reject more students), and the uncertainty that these deferrals (and rejections) cause leads students to apply to more colleges. And the cycle continues.
The bottom line is this: MORE APPLICATIONS ARRIVING AT COLLEGES = MORE DEFERRALS AND (AT LEAST FOR NOW) FEWER ACCEPTANCES FOR STUDENTS.
Which schools defer the most students in early action? Which schools were a surprise?
Certain schools are particularly unpredictable, using deferral to manage both high application volume and to protect their yield. Read more about yield here.
In the last few years we have seen increasing numbers of deferrals from the popular colleges in the southeastern U.S., like Clemson, Elon, the University of Georgia, and the University of South Carolina. Deferrals keep going up: over the last ten years, early applications to the University of Georgia have nearly tripled and this year Georgia’s applicant pool went up a whopping 14.6%, from 2024, and it admitted only about 42% of in-state applicants and 23% of out-of-state applicants in the early round. Out in the southwest, local favorite Texas A&M has built a national profile with applications surging to 75,000 in the fall of 2025 (from 42,000 in 2019). And the University of Florida, which dropped from a 46% acceptance rate in 2013 to 23% acceptance rate in 2023 and has become highly sought after from out-of-state students, offered an early application option for the first time this fall.
Nationally popular public schools like the University of Michigan and the University of Wisconsin continue the trend of deferring large quantities of students. Although neither school publishes data on percent of students deferred, we know from our practice that the vast majority of out-of-state applicants are initially deferred, though we find that a reasonable number of qualified applicants are admitted in the regular decision round to schools like Maryland, Purdue, and Wisconsin. The University of Colorado at Boulder surprised us all this year, deferring numerous well-qualified out-of-state applicants. We know that last year’s applications were up significantly– over 20%-- so it is likely that Boulder continues to deal with a deluge of applications.
The trend in increasing applications holds for many of our most selective schools. Northwestern, for example, had an increase of more than 15% in early decision applications.
What will happen at colleges that have generally high acceptances rates but defer so many students in the Early Action round?
We predict that at schools like Colorado and Elon that defer a majority or large share of applications, we will see acceptances in the spring for many qualified applicants, especially when those students have followed up with letters of interest.
Do highly selective colleges also defer large percentages of applicants?
Unlike many large state schools, which may defer more than 50% of out-of-state applicants, schools like Yale and Stanford tend to reject most students initially, admitting a small percentage and deferring a percentage around 15-20% to the regular round. Interestingly, Yale announced in February 2025 that it would increase its incoming class size by 100 students, a rare move among highly selective schools.
What do deferred students need to do to stay in the game?
Deferred is not denied, and this is not the moment to give up. If you were deferred from your Early Decision or from one or more Early Action schools and you are still interested in the school(s), the first step is to read the deferral letter to learn what, if anything, you can submit. If the school says to not submit anything, follow instructions. If the school allows for a letter of continued interest, 100% write that. If it allows for other submissions, then you may also send other updates, including additional letters of recommendation.
Six important steps to take if you are deferred:
Read the deferral letter and note what you can or can’t submit. Do not submit materials if the school does not allow them. For example, the University of Georgia will not accept anything other than updated test scores, and the University of Wisconsin explicitly instructs deferred students not to send additional materials.
Note the deadline for submitting additional information. Don’t miss it!
Write a thoughtful letter of continued interest, adhering to the word limit (Michigan, e.g. allows only 250 words). These letters are crucial at many schools that are protecting their yield.
Ask for additional letters of recommendation, if allowed, and ensure they are submitted by the deadline.
Request that your guidance office send your first semester grade report.
Send any updated SAT or ACT test scores, if applicable.
If you move forward with more submissions, give them as much attention as you gave your original Early Decision or Early Action applications, and get them in as soon as possible, and certainly by any deadline the school sets.
Getting Deferred from Early Decision — CTK College Coach
How does the test optional movement affect student outcomes?
With test optional a firmly entrenched approach to college admissions, average reported test scores at schools remain much higher than those pre-pandemic.
Which colleges are requiring test scores again?
Although the vast majority of colleges and universities remains test optional, we had big changes over the last year, and the following colleges and universities now require test scores for Class of 2025 and/or starting for the Class of 2026 (though some have test flexible policies, like Yale’s, which allow for AP, IB, SAT, or ACT scores to be submitted).
Private colleges and universities that require test scores (as of Feb 2025)
University of Pennsylvania
Georgetown
Stanford
CalTech
MIT
Harvard
Cornell
Brown
Dartmouth
Yale
University of Miami
*Note that Princeton, Columbia, and UPenn are the Ivy League colleges that remain test optional. Shout out to the University of Miami, which only announced in January 2025 that it would be requiring test scores for applicants to most majors applying this fall (Class of 2026).
Public colleges and universities that require test scores (as of Feb 2025)
Georgia Tech
University of Georgia
Georgia State (in some instances)
Purdue
University of Texas-Austin
University of Tennessee (public schools in Tennessee)
University of Florida (public schools in Florida)
US military academies
How do I know if a school is truly test optional or if they heavily favor those who submit test scores?
The Common Data Set (CDS) for each school shows the percent of first year students on campus (enrolled, admitted first-year students) who submitted test scores. If you are applying to a test optional school, check the CDS: the greater the percentage of students in the class who submitted test scores, the more likely it is– even at a test optional college– that your test scores will matter. Also, pay attention: college representatives will often drop this information during college tours and info sessions, letting students know whether submitting scores is important.
What is going to happen in the future with test optional trends?
We can’t predict the future; however, we can acknowledge some facts: colleges that wanted to return to a test-required model had a big opening last spring when several schools returned to requiring test scores. Presumably, if a college wanted to change tack, it would have announced that decision then. Second, it is in many colleges’ interests to remain test optional: it allows the college to recruit the class it wants without having to be governed by a testing requirement. Third, colleges like having increasing numbers of applicants, and the test optional movement drives applications in that direction.
For all those reasons, we do not anticipate that most colleges will return to requiring test scores. That said, students applying to the most selective colleges and programs (e.g. a business major at the University of Maryland, or an engineering major at the University of Wisconsin) would be well advised to achieve a competitive test score.
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