NYU’s acceptance rate dropped to 8% for its newly admitted class of 2027, the lowest ever recorded at the university’s New York campus. The university’s newest class received their acceptance letters on Tuesday evening. More than 120,000 students applied to the university during this admissions cycle — marking the highest number of applications it has ever received and the 16th year in a row that a new record was set.

“NYU’s admitted class of 2027 reaffirms the university’s commitment to higher education access and our enduring position as a university that is ‘open to all, regardless of national origin, religious beliefs, or social background,’” Jonathan Williams, the NYU vice president who oversees undergraduate admissions, said in a press release. “It is humbling that so many extraordinary young people from all around the globe chose NYU as the educational institution that might help them to achieve their academic and career goals.”

According to NYU, students entering the class of 2027 will come from 88 countries, and will represent 50 U.S. states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. In keeping with the financial aid policy the university instituted in 2021, it will meet 100% of demonstrated financial need for every student in the first-year class.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, colleges across the U.S. have reported considerable increases in the number of applications they receive each year, in part because many schools opted to eliminate their standardized test requirements. According to the Common Application, the standardized form used by over 1,000 institutions nationwide, the total number of applications it processes each year has risen by 30% since 2019.

This year’s rate makes NYU’s newest class more than three times as selective as the class of 2021, admitted six years ago. NYU sent acceptances to 27% of applicants for that class. Last year, for the class of 2026, NYU’s admission rate was 12.2%.

Later this year, the U.S. Supreme Court will make a ruling on a pair of cases that will decide whether race-sensitive college applications decisions — commonly known as affirmative action policies — will remain legal. During arguments for both cases, Supreme Court justices have expressed skepticism about affirmative action policies, and the court is widely expected to declare them unconstitutional. In the press release announcing application decisions, Williams mentioned the impending decision, arguing that NYU’s class of 2027 demonstrates its ability to balance diversity and selectivity.

“As we look towards a future under new legal directives around diversity in higher education, NYU continues to demonstrate that selectivity and an exceptionally talented student body are not mutually exclusive to upholding values of diversity and access which so deeply enrich a university education,” Williams said.

NYU’s president, Andrew Hamilton, has called the ruling on affirmative action the “most consequential case for higher education in nearly 20 years,” and the university was represented in an amicus brief defending the policy, which was filed in the Supreme Court.

“Overturning the long-standing precedents that have governed these issues would be a major step backwards for this nation’s higher education system and its role as an engine of opportunity, as well as a troubling and unwarranted intervention in universities’ ability to make considered, educational judgments about admissions,” Hamilton said in a statement last October.

Contact Arnav Binaykia at [email protected].