College by the Numbers

Every year, a freshman cohort of approximately 900 students is admitted to Stuyvesant, with some being prepared for high school, while others are less so. Regardless, all incoming students are subject to Stuyvesant’s rigorous academic environment for the next four years, culminating in the dreaded college application season. During the application period, students begin to pile on SAT and ACT studying, college touring, and extracurricular frenzies, worrying they won’t be accepted into elite universities. Though the college process is an arduous and mentally-straining journey for Stuyvesant students, fear not, for Stuyvesant boasts one of the nation’s top university acceptance rates.

When it comes to college admissions, Stuyvesant undoubtedly outperforms the majority of the nation. Stuyvesant students can expect high acceptance rates for most colleges, as alumni have demonstrated substantially higher admissions rates for even the most elite institutions. At some universities, Stuyvesant students can expect a nearly 50 percent improvement in admissions chances compared to the average high school student. And for the majority of the Ivy Leagues, Stuyvesant students were accepted at a rate of at least a few percentage points higher than the national average. At Cornell, 17 percent of Stuyvesant applicants were accepted over a 10-year period as opposed to the national average of 11 percent. At Harvard, Stuyvesant outperformed the national acceptance average of five percent by a near-double nine percent, out of those who applied. Take another prestigious university, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), which has a national admissions rate of just over four percent. Despite this, Stuyvesant students have a jaw-dropping 14 percent acceptance rate of those who applied, a 250 percent boost over the norm.

In terms of state universities and city colleges, Stuyvesant students continue to uphold Stuyvesant’s exceptional acceptance rates. For instance, in the past 10 years, 71 percent of Binghamton applications from Stuyvesant were accepted, whereas only 41 percent were accepted nationally. This makes sense because Binghamton is a state school and Stuyvesant students are all New York residents.

However, over this time period, only 19 percent of Stuyvesant's applicants actually attended Binghamton University—in 2020, 397 students were accepted and only 76 enrolled, and in 2021, 420 students were accepted and only 45 enrolled. These patterns are also exhibited in several other state colleges. At Stony Brook University, though Stuyvesant’s 10-year percentage exceeded the national average, yet only 44 out of 263 accepted students chose to enroll in 2020, and 80 out of 303 students in 2021.

Still, some students may consider Stuyvesant’s acceptance rates to elite universities inadequate, lamenting that Stuyvesant “only” sends a handful of students each to Harvard, Yale, or Princeton per year (note that nearly an eighth––96 students in 2020, 70 students in 2021––of all students attended an Ivy League or another elite school like MIT or Stanford)*. Last year’s senior survey indicated that as many as 40.9 percent of Stuyvesant students who applied to an Ivy League college or elite university attended one. Compared to most of the nation’s public schools, which generally send one or two kids to an Ivy League or another elite school every few years, Stuyvesant has remarkable rates.

For Stuyvesant students who are stressed about college admissions, rest assured, because the numbers are in your favor. The admissions rates into elite universities for Stuyvesant students have mostly remained constant over the years. As expressed in The Spectator’s 2025 Freshmen Survey, around 60.1 percent of the freshmen body have expressed interest in attending an Ivy League or another elite university. Whether your ambitions are geared toward the Ivy Leagues or excelling in a state college, Stuyvesant is the optimal place to get a head start on your higher education.

*. The number of acceptances into Ivy Leagues did not differ by much between 2020 and 2021 (145 and 133, respectively). These numbers, however, do not reflect the exact number of individuals who were offered a seat at these institutions, as a single student could’ve been accepted into multiple Ivy League colleges. The decrease in enrollment is possibly due to the fact that admissions to these schools have become more concentrated among fewer students, or that more students have chosen to enroll into non-Ivy League institutions.