Santa Clara University's admit rate has fallen 12.9 percentage points across the 23 reported years on file.
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 | 47.9% | 1,641 | 87.2% | 93.0% | 1,410 |
| 2024-2025 | 48.0% | 1,612 | 88.1% | 93.8% | 1,410 |
| 2023-2024 | — | 2 | — | — | — |
| 2022-2023 | 52.1% | 1,641 | 88.6% | 91.9% | 1,390 |
| 2021-2022 | 54.0% | 1,549 | 90.9% | 94.3% | — |
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.
Six-year graduation rate exceeds the national median by 31 percentage points.
Santa Clara University's 87.2% six-year graduation rate exceeds the national 4-year-institution median of 56.3% (per IPEDS, n=1555) by 30.9 pp.
Cross-admit cohort spans an unusually wide selectivity range.
The schools Santa Clara University applicants most commonly also apply to range from 38.2% admit to 89.2% admit — a 51.0 pp band. A reasonable read: applicants choose by region or program fit rather than selectivity tier alone.
Admit rate has tightened 6.1 percentage points over 4 reporting cycles.
Santa Clara University's admit rate fell from 54.0% (2021-2022) to 47.9% (2025-2026) — a 6.1 pp drop. Year-over-year: 54.0 → 52.1 → 48.0 → 47.9. A snapshot of the current year alone would hide this structural shift.
Cross-admits concentrated in the home region.
5 of 7 cross-admit schools are in CA — Santa Clara University draws applicants weighing it against in-state and adjacent-state alternatives, not coastal or selective national peers.
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 →