Boston University admits roughly 13 of every 100 applicants in the most recent CDS reporting cycle.
The headline numbers, drawn from CDS sections A–H.
Per-cycle Common Data Set values. Enrolled is first-year matriculants (CDS B1), not total undergraduate population. Blank cells mean the field was not published in that year's source CDS.
| Year | Admit rate | Enrolled | 6-yr grad | Retention | SAT (50th) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025-2026 | 12.8% | 3,449 | 90.0% | 94.2% | 1,470 |
| 2024-2025 | 11.1% | 3,268 | 89.0% | 95.0% | 1,470 |
| 2023-2024 | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2022-2023 | — | 3,634 | 89.0% | 94.0% | 1,430 |
| 2021-2022 | — | 4,010 | 89.0% | 94.0% | — |
Cross-admits and statistical look-alikes, surfaced from the CollegeNumbers peer model.
Comparative observations derived from this school's reported CDS values and from IPEDS / College Scorecard reference data. Every claim is grounded in a number — no editorial overlay.
Highly selective — top tier of CDS Atlas schools.
Boston University's 12.8% admit rate places it among 50 of 334 covered schools admitting below 15% (~15.0% of the index).
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 34 percentage points.
Boston University's 90.0% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 33.7 pp.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools Boston University applicants most commonly also apply to range from 5.6% admit to 47.1% admit — a 41.5 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
Sources: each school's officially-published Common Data Set; IPEDS / College Scorecard for federal comparisons. Methodology →
Compare every CDS field — admissions, aid, outcomes — side by side.
Open in CollegeNumbers compareThe Common Data Set is a standardized reporting form U.S. colleges file annually — sections A through J covering admissions selectivity, enrollment, aid, faculty resources, and outcomes. CollegeNumbers extracts every value directly from each school's officially published CDS PDF, xlsx, docx, or HTML, then normalizes into a unified schema.
Federal data layers — College Scorecard, EADA athletics, Clery campus safety, FSA financial responsibility — are joined on top. Every value traces back to its primary source. All covered schools →