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Matriculating Class 2031  ·  Bulletin No. 04  ·  October 2026

Early Decision  ·  Vanderbilt  ·  2025-26 Common Data Set

Should you apply Early Decision to Vanderbilt?

Vanderbilt admitted 14.1% of its Early Decision applicants, against 4.1% of everyone else who applied. Those are its own figures, for students who applied to enter in fall 2025.

14.1%Early Decision admit rate
4.1%Everyone else
5.4%All applicants
874ED admits
6,202ED applications

Admit rates computed from Vanderbilt's own counts in its 2025-26 Common Data Set (sections C1 and C21), for applicants who entered in fall 2025. Everyone else is all admits minus ED admits, over all applications minus ED applications. ED applicants deferred and later admitted stay in the admits, so that figure runs slightly high and the gap slightly small. Schools also differ in whether ED II is counted in their ED figures.

What the gap means

The Early Decision pool is not a random slice of applicants. Recruited athletes, for example, are commonly asked to apply early. No school publishes the gap with them taken out, so the gap is not the effect of applying Early Decision by itself.

Test scores of enrolled students

Test25th50th75th
SAT composite151015301560
ACT composite343535

Middle 50% of enrolled first-years who submitted scores (section C9). 0% submitted the SAT, 0% the ACT.

This cycle

No Vanderbilt results have been reported yet for the Class of 2031. Decisions land in mid-December.

Anonymous reports from applicants, counted as they come in. Share of what was reported, never an admit rate.

Get your free Early Decision Reading.

Log where you applied early and what happened, then see where your scores sit at Vanderbilt and every other school on your list, against their own published numbers.

Get my Reading

Source Vanderbilt, 2025-26 Common Data Set, read 2026-10-27. Counts are printed in the school's own filing; rates are computed from them. Nothing here is estimated. File SHA-256 37b70162d0e9e9d2.

Other Early Decision schools

Barnardn/pBoston College33.4%Boston University31.3%Carnegie Mellon20.6%Claremont McKenna22.1%Colgate35.5%Columbia14.0%Cornell18.8%Dartmouth21.6%Davidson29.1%Duken/pEmory22.2%Hamilton28.1%Johns Hopkins10.9%Middlebury39.0%Northwestern20.4%Penn13.3%Reedn/pRice11.3%Smith33.5%Tufts32.0%UChicagon/pUSCn/pVassar38.4%Washington & Lee27.6%WashU St. Louis27.0%Wellesley29.4%Wesleyan42.8%Williams26.6%

Number shown is the published Early Decision admit rate; n/p means the school does not publish it.