Association of American Universities Undergraduate (AAU) Admissions Analysis

Research Brief: What are Top US Universities’ Admissions Trends in 2021?

Jordan G., International Educational Consultancy

As of 2021, the US has 3,762 institutions of higher education. One third of them are two-year technical and community colleges. 19% are four-year special-focus colleges (non-comprehensive offering degrees primarily in one field of study). 19% are baccalaureate colleges (primarily offering bachelor degrees but not master or doctorate level degrees). 17% are master’s colleges (primarily offering all but doctorate level degrees). And, 12% are research universities (offering bachelor, master’s, and doctorate degrees). This last group, which receives most of the attention in the media, is the focus of this report. This report places no judgement on the other groups of schools, all of which can be a perfect fit for students depending on their needs and desires. The choice to focus on research universities is due to their particular appeal to international students and their families.

This report uses AAU member universities to represent what can be considered a group of high-quality comprehensive research universities – which seem to be appealing to international students. The report offers a broad overview of what these high-quality universities look like, what is needed for admission to these universities, and what typical test scores are for admitted applicants to these schools.

Among these 69 schools, the data indicate that the locations, admissions requirements, and test scores vary to quite a degree. Nevertheless, ranking of the school is clearly related to the selectivity and competitiveness of the school’s admission process. As such, it is important for students and their support networks to understand as much as possible about institutions of interest to best inform their decisions and maintain reasonable expectations.

What are some basic characteristics of these top schools?

AAU members are split according to public or private control. In terms of size, nearly two-thirds of AAU schools are large by US standards - over 20,000 students - while only a small number are 10,000 students or less. Half of AAUs are around 60% undergraduate students and 40% graduate students while a third have a vast majority of undergraduate students. One in five AAU schools have more graduate students than undergraduate. The majority of AAU schools offer undergraduate majors heavily focusing on arts and sciences over professions (e.g. business, engineer, health professional) though a small proportion (7%) focus more on the professions.

What materials are required for admission to AAU schools?

High School GPA is required, recommended, or considered by all schools except one. A student’s high school class rank (e.g. 1st in her class) is only required by four schools, but is recommended and considered in 47 schools with 18 schools not requiring it at all. High school transcripts are required at all but one school (still recommended there). Following a certain curriculum in high school, college prep courses, (not only the minimum requirements for a US diploma) is very important in all but three schools.  Recommendation letters present the first drastic difference between public and private AAU schools with all but one private AAU school requiring them (one recommends). About half of the public AAUs require, recommend, or consider recommendations, and the other half do need them. Formal demonstration of competencies is only required by four private schools while the vast majority of all schools do not want them.  Note that personal essays are also often required, but this data point was only added (and not yet available) for the 2021-2022 data collection cycle.

It is clear that admission test scores are following the US trend of being optional with the vast majority (48 schools) considering but not requiring them, which is the definition of test-optional. Still, seven schools require SAT or ACT and two recommend them. TOEFL scores (or presumably other English tests) are important for admissions at AAUs with only four schools not requiring nor recommending them.

How many applications do these top schools receive? And, how many are admitted?

Overall, AAU member universities received 3.5 million applications and admitted 1.2 million students amounting to a 35% admission rate. However, these applications and admissions vary according to control, school size, and USNWR ranking. Among the private and public AAUs, private universities admit a mere 11% of their applicants while public universities admit half of their applicants. In terms of size (student population), the size of the school proportionately reflects the both the number of applications received and students admitted. Ranking is a strong indicator or a school’s selectivity with the top 10 schools admitting only one in twenty applicants. Schools ranked among the top 50-140 admit 65-75% of their applicants. Nevertheless, there are five schools (public and private) that are in the top 50 and admit 40% or more of their applicants.

SAT and ACT Scores at AAU Schools (Those which Accept Them)

Of the 69 AAU universities, 12 do not accept test scores; in addition, two more did not submit data to IPEDS about these scores. Therefore, test score analyses are based on 55 AAU universities (29 private and 26 public). Among these 55 universities, many are test-optional. For the top ten AAU schools, over 75% of the applicants submitted either SAT or ACT. For all other AAU schools, just over 60% submitted a test score. For test scores, the 75th percentile is reported – meaning that 75% (almost all) of the admitted students had this score or higher. One way for this to be understood is as a cautious minimum target. Scores on both SAT and ACT decrease according to rank on average with the those ranked in the top 25 having scores nearing the ceiling for the respective test section.