NYU saw a record-breaking number of applicants to its class of 2029, receiving over 120,000 applications — more than any other private university. The number marks a 3% increase from last year’s applicant pool and includes the largest number of early decision applications for the second consecutive year.
Approximately 6,500 students will join the incoming class across NYU’s three degree-granting campuses — in New York, Shanghai and Abu Dhabi — marking a nearly 800-person increase from its classes of 2028, 2027 and 2026. For the past two years, the university has maintained an acceptance rate of 8% after a decade of consistent decline.
Around 25,000 students applied to both Early Decision I or II, about a 10% increase from last year. The rise comes after NYU jumped five spots in the U.S. News & World Report’s national university rankings, placing it at No. 30 across more than 400 higher education institutions.
“It is exciting and humbling to have so many wonderful, talented students apply to NYU from all over the US and the world, and particularly to have such a large increase in applicants for whom NYU is their first choice,’’ MJ Knoll-Fin, NYU’s senior vice president of enrollment management and student success, said in the press release.
Early applications have trended upward over the past several years. This application cycle, several test-optional institutions saw comparable increases to NYU — such as Duke University and Northwestern University, both of which received 6% and 15.5% more applications respectively, as well as Emory University, which received 21% more. However, universities that have reinstated standardized testing requirements, such as Yale University and Columbia University, have seen 14% and 2% declines, respectively. In March, NYU said it was reviewing internal data to decide whether it would change its policy.
Last year, NYU received 118,000 applications, the first time its application pool shrunk after a 17-year consecutive increase, despite a nationwide 0.4% growth in total enrollment. In 2023, 2021 and 2020, the university received 120,000, 105,000 and 100,000, respectively.
NYU’s class of 2028 saw a sharp drop in enrollment of underrepresented minorities following the U.S. Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action. White and Asian enrollment increased, while Black student enrollment fell from 7% to 4% and Latino student enrollment fell from 15% to 10% — a trend the university said was “concerning” but “not unanticipated.”
According to this year’s Common Application report, first-year college applications rose by 5% across the country. While applicants from areas above median-income levels grew by 4%, applicants from low-income neighborhoods increased by more than 9% and the number of applicants eligible for fee waivers rose by 10%.
Contact Amelia Hernandez Gioia at [email protected].
