Early Decision
American University Early Decision Acceptance Rate 2025-2026
DC
What is American University's Early Decision acceptance rate?
American University admitted 316 of its 392 Early Decision applicants, 80.6% (Common Data Set 2025-2026). 392 Early Decision applications is under the 400 this site requires before it will publish a comparison, so no Early Decision multiple is shown for this school and neither is the admit rate for the rest of the pool. A ratio built on a pool this small is noise, not leverage.
What American University reported · Common Data Set 2025-2026
Early Decision · 316 admitted of 392 applied
80.6%
The Early Decision pool is not a random slice of the applicants — recruited athletes, legacy applicants and QuestBridge matches are counted inside it — so this rate describes that group, not an applicant like you.
Admitted SAT · middle 50% · College Scorecard 2024
1280–1460
Half of admitted students scored inside this range. It is the admitted band, not a minimum and not a cutoff, and it covers the whole entering class rather than the Early Decision round alone.
What families actually pay (AY 2023–24)
Early Decision is binding, so accepting one ends the option of comparing two aid offers. These are the published averages before that choice is made.
Average paid by students receiving federal aid, by family income (College Scorecard).
International students are not eligible for U.S. federal aid, so they are not in this cohort and typically pay closer to the sticker price.
Across the 8 recorded cycles from 2018 to 2025, American University's overall acceptance rate rose from 31.5% to 65.6%. That is the whole entering class — Early Decision, Early Action and Regular Decision together — not the Early Decision round on its own.
See the year-by-year series →Should you use your one Early Decision application here? — see the call on your list, $49
This page is one school. The call needs the rest of your list beside it — the same published figures, read against each other.
Read my list →Common Data Set — the school's own annual filing, published by the school itself for the cycle named beside each figure. American University’s filing