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International Student Acceptance Rates 2026: US vs International at 64 Private Colleges

7 min read·Oct 23, 2026

A college publishes one acceptance rate, but international applicants are usually competing at a different one. At Washington and Lee University, 25.3% of applicants from the US were admitted for fall 2025, against 1.8% of international applicants. Half of W&L's applicants (49.9%) were international, which is how a 25% door for US students becomes a 13.5% headline rate.

Those numbers come from the colleges themselves. The Common Data Set, the standard report many colleges publish each year, asks them to split first-year applicants and admits by residency "if available". We read the filings we have for private colleges that admit fewer than 60% of applicants, and 64 filled the split in, 57 for fall 2025 and seven for fall 2024. (Four more did, but other figures in their filings are still under review on our side, so they're left out.) "US applicants" below combines the in-state and out-of-state columns; the rates are our arithmetic on the counts each college reported.

Public universities aren't in this table. Their applicants come in three pools, and the in-state pool usually gets a rate of its own, so they have a separate post with in-state, out-of-state and international rates at 43 public universities.

All 64, widest gap first

The table is ordered by how far the international rate falls below the US rate, measured as a ratio.

College	US applicants admitted	International applicants admitted	International share of applicants
Washington and Lee University	25.3%	1.8%	49.9%
Connecticut College	57.7%	4.5%	34.8%
Trinity College	50.5%	5.0%	46.0%
Carleton College	38.4%	4.0%	48.4%
Loyola Marymount University	53.9%	5.7%	11.9%
Hamilton College†	20.6%	2.2%	37.8%
Bennington College	70.2%	7.8%	52.8%
Bowdoin College	11.0%	1.3%	43.0%
Bates College	27.6%	3.2%	52.2%
Lehigh University	35.8%	4.2%	21.6%
Davidson College	19.4%	2.4%	40.0%
Reed College	49.0%	6.6%	46.7%
Bucknell University	40.0%	5.9%	22.8%
Lafayette College†	45.4%	7.0%	36.3%
Pitzer College	39.0%	6.0%	36.7%
Allegheny College	78.8%	12.6%	30.3%
Haverford College	22.2%	3.8%	48.4%
Vassar College	28.9%	5.0%	33.3%
Skidmore College	35.0%	6.1%	38.8%
Franklin and Marshall College†	47.0%	9.2%	49.8%
Union College	67.1%	13.8%	44.4%
Fairfield University	25.7%	5.5%	3.4%
Smith College†	28.0%	6.0%	31.7%
Bryn Mawr College	39.2%	9.5%	37.2%
Colorado College	27.7%	6.9%	26.9%
Oberlin College	44.4%	11.1%	34.2%
Denison University	29.8%	7.6%	46.2%
Dickinson College	51.9%	13.4%	27.1%
Rhodes College	72.8%	18.9%	39.4%
Brandeis University	61.3%	18.0%	36.7%
Occidental College	52.3%	16.1%	20.6%
University of Rochester	55.9%	18.2%	37.0%
St. Olaf College	56.9%	18.5%	35.1%
Cornell University	10.0%	3.6%	25.6%
Harvey Mudd College	14.6%	5.3%	24.8%
Villanova University	29.2%	11.3%	6.0%
University of Notre Dame	10.6%	4.2%	19.2%
Rice University	9.3%	3.8%	23.9%
Wabash College	71.2%	29.4%	33.8%
Scripps College	43.4%	18.0%	13.9%
Claremont McKenna College	11.8%	4.9%	33.8%
University of Pennsylvania	5.7%	2.5%	24.6%
Tufts University	12.8%	5.7%	27.7%
Columbia University	5.7%	2.6%	25.8%
University of Miami	19.0%	9.4%	14.7%
Southern Methodist University	49.5%	24.7%	7.3%
Case Western Reserve University	40.9%	21.2%	28.3%
Emory University	11.6%	6.3%	24.5%
Washington University in St. Louis	13.3%	7.3%	23.5%
Santa Clara University	50.8%	28.6%	13.0%
Georgetown University	14.4%	8.3%	14.6%
Duke University†	6.5%	3.9%	29.2%
Babson College	18.8%	11.4%	35.5%
Syracuse University	50.4%	32.8%	9.0%
Northeastern University†	5.5%	3.8%	17.9%
Vanderbilt University	5.7%	4.0%	19.0%
Stevens Institute of Technology	52.7%	37.6%	13.1%
George Washington University	48.8%	36.3%	14.1%
Marist University	56.3%	48.7%	4.5%
University of San Diego	53.8%	49.2%	5.4%
Baylor University	52.4%	49.6%	7.9%
Boston College†	16.1%	16.7%	10.6%
University of Southern California	10.6%	13.7%	19.9%
Boston University	11.9%	16.0%	20.6%

† Fall 2024 figures (2024–25 filing).

Liberal arts colleges show the widest gaps

The top of the table is mostly liberal arts colleges, and at many of them international applicants are close to half of everyone who applies: 52.8% at Bennington, 52.2% at Bates, 49.8% at Franklin and Marshall, 48.4% at Carleton and Haverford, 46.7% at Reed, 46.0% at Trinity and 43.0% at Bowdoin. Those applicants were admitted at roughly a tenth to a fifth of the US rate. The lowest international rates on the list are Bowdoin's 1.3%, Washington and Lee's 1.8%, Hamilton's 2.2%, Davidson's 2.4% and Penn's 2.5%.

The size of the pool matters for reading a headline rate. Connecticut College admitted 39.2% of all its applicants: 57.7% of those from the US and 4.5% of international applicants, who were about a third of the pool. Neither group faced the 39.2%.

Most universities are closer, and three go the other way

At most of the large research universities the gap narrows. Cornell admitted 3.6% of international applicants against 10.0% of US applicants, Georgetown 8.3% against 14.4%, and Vanderbilt 4.0% against 5.7%. At Baylor and the University of San Diego, international applicants were admitted at more than nine-tenths of the US rate (49.6% against 52.4%, and 49.2% against 53.8%).

Two universities sit at the wide end with the liberal arts colleges: Loyola Marymount admitted 5.7% of international applicants against 53.9% of US applicants, and Lehigh 4.2% against 35.8%.

At three, international applicants were admitted more often than US applicants: Boston College (16.7% against 16.1%, in fall 2024), the University of Southern California (13.7% against 10.6%) and Boston University (16.0% against 11.9%).

What these numbers don't tell you

The filings show outcomes, not reasons. They don't say how each college reads an international application, how many it planned to admit, or how financial need entered the decision.

They also sort applicants by where they lived, not by passport. The form asks colleges to report residency "based on known physical address at time of application," so the international column can include US citizens who applied from abroad.

If you're applying from outside the US, the money questions run alongside these. Which US colleges give international students aid, what a US degree costs an international student, and how Early Decision works from abroad each have their own numbers.

Before your applications go in, put your whole list in and see, free, what each college published about its early round and where your score sits. The answer across your whole list is the paid document.

Applicants and admits by residency are from section C1 of each college's Common Data Set, 2025–26, or 2024–25 where marked. Rates are our calculation from those counts.

Results are data-based estimates and do not guarantee admission. This article is for informational purposes only and does not guarantee admission outcomes. All data is based on publicly available information and may not reflect current admissions standards.

Written by Justin L. — data analysis on U.S. federal education datasets (IPEDS · College Scorecard).