NYU’s acceptance rate stayed at 8% for the 2023-24 admissions cycle, the university announced Monday evening. Successful applicants, who received their acceptance letters on March 28, were selected from a pool of over 118,000 applications — marking the first time the applicant pool has decreased in 17 years.

This year’s admits come from over 103 countries, 49 states and several U.S. territories, according to NYU. Three schools within the university saw acceptance rates of under 5%, also the same as last year. The university said it anticipates 20% of the class to be first-generation students and another 20% to be federal Pell Grant recipients. NYU also said it had received its greatest number of early decision applications, more than 22,000, in its history.

“NYU’s admitted class of 2028 is made up of students who represent the best of us,” Jonathan Williams, the associate vice president of undergraduate admissions, said in a press release. “Their unwavering perseverance in the face of myriad challenges showcases their dedication to creating a better world — together.”

This year’s class will be among the first to reap the benefits of President Linda Mills’ NYU Promise, which will make tuition free for families with an annual household income under $100,000. The initiative will cover all undergraduate students admitted to the university as first-years starting in the fall 2024 semester. Since 2021, NYU has also met 100% of applicants’ demonstrated financial need. Of students admitted to the class of 2028, over 1,000 are NYU Promise recipients.

This year’s application cycle was also the first to follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to strike down race-sensitive college admissions practices, which NYU leadership has called “a step backwards.” The university has also previously said it would “not forsake” its commitment to creating a “diverse and inclusive” student body, but would comply with required legal changes to the admissions process.

In previous years, NYU has “considered” an applicant’s race and ethnicity as part of the admissions process, according to data from the university’s Common Data Sets. The university has increased diversity among its student body in recent years, and said that last year’s admitted class was expected to have “no racial or ethnic majority.”

Like many other universities, NYU saw significant increases in the number of applications it received after the COVID-19 pandemic, in part due to its shift to a test-optional policy. Some schools, such as Yale University, Dartmouth University and Brown University, recently reinstated mandatory standardized testing after finding that lower-income applicants could be disadvantaged by test-optional policies. NYU is currently reviewing internal data to determine whether it should remain test optional in the next application cycle.

The number of applications to private universities like NYU on the Common Application — the form that more than 1,000 institutions across the country use for college admissions — were up 7% this year. Total applications increased by 9% from last year, with the number of applicants who identified as underrepresented racial and ethnic minorities going up by 12%.

This year’s stagnant acceptance rate comes after NYU dropped to the 35th spot in U.S. News & World Report’s national college rankings in September. The shift followed significant changes to the rankings’ methodology, which put a greater emphasis on categories like student-faculty ratio and borrower debt, and less on factors such as graduation rates and financial resources.

Contact Carmo Moniz at [email protected].