During the 2024–2025 admissions cycle, Boston College admitted 16.2% of applicants. For families who remember BC as a far more accessible option decades ago, that number can feel jarring. But a single percentage doesn’t really explain how selective Boston College has become, or why. While BC does release some admissions information publicly, understanding what’s actually driving these outcomes requires a little bit more analysis and, yes, even some math (women in STEM!!). Each year, we break down this data so students can see the full picture and approach the process with clearer expectations and a smarter strategy.
Most colleges and universities in the U.S. complete a standardized reporting document known as the Common Data Set, or CDS. The CDS was designed to give organizations like U.S. News & World Report, the College Board, and Peterson’s consistent, comparable data for rankings and institutional profiles. It covers a wide range of information, but for our purposes, we’re going to focus on one specific part of Boston College’s 2024–2025 CDS: first-time, first-year admissions.
Trend Spotting: Five Years of Boston College Admissions
Before diving into the details of the most recent cycle, it’s useful to zoom out and examine the broader trend at Boston College. Their admissions trends over the last five years look a bit different from those of their peer institutions. After a spike in applications after Covid, BC’s pure application numbers are sort of going down, but the acceptance rate is firmly under 20%.
| Year | Total Applicants | Number of Admitted Students | Acceptance Rate | ED Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 34,779 | 5,632 | 16.20% | 33.40% |
| 2024 | 36,069 | 5,645 | 15.70% | 25.60% |
| 2023 | 40,494 | 6,784 | 16.80% | 28.10% |
| 2022 | 39,846 | 7,587 | 19.00% | 39.10% |
| 2021 | 29,382 | 7,752 | 26.40% | n/a |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Key Takeaways for Trend Data:
Boston College has become steadily more selective over time – going from 40s-30s a decade ago to a sub-20% in the last few years
The ED acceptance rates are kind of all over the place
BC is still hyper-competitive. And to stand out, you need to make sure to differentiate yourself in an applicant pool full of motivated, high-achieving students who already look strong on paper. First step? Meet the academic expectations.
C1: First-Time, First-Year Admission, Applications
Here’s how the numbers break down for first-time, first-year applicants in the 2024–2025 cycle:
| First-time, first-year applicants | Total | Admitted | Acceptance Rate | Enrolled | Yield rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Men | 14,099 | 2,800 | 19.90% | 1,193 | 42.60% |
| Women | 20,674 | 2,832 | 13.70% | 1,201 | 42.40% |
| Another Gender | 6 | 0 | 0% | N/A | N/A |
| Total | 34,779 | 5,632 | 16.20% | 2,394 | 42.50% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
**This number seems wrong. The men + women + another gender equals 34,752, but they report 34,779 as the total in the CDS
| First-time, first-year applicants | Total | In-state | Out-of-state | International | Unknown |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Applied | 34,779 | 5,401 | 25,661 | 3,696 | 21 |
| Percent of total applicant pool | 100% | 15.50% | 73.80% | 10.60% | 0.06% |
| Admitted | 5,632 | 896 | 4,116 | 618 | 2 |
| Acceptance Rate | 16.20% | 16.60% | 16.00% | 16.70% | 9.50% |
| Enrolled | 2,394 | 471 | 1,708 | 214 | 1 |
| Yield Rate | 42.50% | 52.60% | 41.50% | 34.60% | 50% |
| Percent of incoming class | 100% | 19.70% | 71.30% | 8.90% | 0.04% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Key Takeaways for Acceptance Rates:
A mid-teens acceptance rate makes Boston College a reach for most applicants
BC has a much lower yield rate than we’d expect, and lower than many of their peer colleges
Women have a much harder time getting into BC than men, and their international acceptance rate is a lot higher than we normally see
Boston College is a competitive school. You hopefully already know that – but you might be a parent who remembers it not being so challenging. It’s difficult to build a strategic plan without understanding just how selective the school really is or what the admitted student profile tends to look like, but these numbers can help inform your strategy.
Early Decision
Boston College has long cared about Early Decision. This is probably because ED applicants are a positive for their yield rate. As you saw in the five-year trend, their ED rate is sort of a mess, but it’s still a large portion of their incoming class nonetheless. Now, it’s easy to see the higher percentage and assume ED is a shortcut, but the reality is a bit more nuanced:
| Number of ED applications | 4,288 |
|---|---|
| Percent of applicants applying ED | 12% |
| Number of ED acceptances | 1,434 |
| ED acceptance rate | 33.40% |
| Percent of admitted students accepted through ED* | 25.50% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: Boston College’s Early Decision acceptance rate remains higher than its overall admit rate. ED is never a guarantee, but for applicants who are already strong academic and contextual fits, applying ED, or even ED2, can still offer a real strategic benefit.
A meaningful portion of the incoming class (a quarter) is filled through Early Decision, but ED is far from a magic potion for applicants – it simply works best for students who are already competitive and genuinely committed. Basically, applying ED won’t magically fix a weak app.
Regular Decision
The Common Data Set doesn’t list Regular Decision acceptance rates outright, but we can estimate them by subtracting ED numbers from the total. While these figures aren’t perfectly exact, they’re reliable enough to help us plan:
| Number of RD applications | 30,491 |
|---|---|
| Number of RD acceptances | 4,198 |
| RD acceptance rate | 13.80% |
| Percent of admitted students accepted through RD | 74.50% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: Three-quarters of Boston College’s class is admitted through Regular Decision, but RD is significantly more selective than ED. If BC is truly your first choice and your application is already strong, Early Decision is often the more strategic route.
Waitlist
A lot of schools like to not share their waitlist information, but thankfully, BC does:
| Students placed on waitlist | 7,444 |
|---|---|
| Percent of applicants waitlisted | 21.40% |
| Students accepting a spot on the waitlist | 4,139 |
| Percent of students accepting a waitlist spot | 55.60% |
| Students admitted off the waitlist | 352 |
| Waitlist acceptance rate | 8.50% |
| Percent of total accepted students who were admitted from the waitlist | 6.25% |
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers.
Why This Matters: BC waitlists a decent amount of students – about 1/5th, but their waitlist acceptance rate is fairly low. But it’s not impossible!
Getting waitlisted can produce some big feelings. Some students assume it’s a soft rejection, while others treat it like a delayed acceptance, but neither interpretation is quite right. A waitlist decision means BC does see you as capable of succeeding there, but they just don’t currently have room. We do think for a school with this low of yield, they should probably accept more waitlist students, but what do we know. Spots open unpredictably and in limited numbers, but movement does happen! We help students navigate waitlists at Boston College and other selective schools every year.
C9-C2: First-Time, First-Year Profile, or Scores and Grades
| Percent | Number | |
|---|---|---|
| Submitting SAT Scores | 30% | 711 |
| Submitting ACT Scores | 15% | 366 |
| Total Submitting Scores* | 45% | 1,077 |
Boston College is still test-optional, but please don’t translate that as “tests don’t count.” In the 2026 admissions world, “optional” is a) not optional, and b) means you get to hand them another piece of evidence that you deserve admission. And BC will absolutely use it if you give it to them. A lot of colleges have been rethinking test-optional because they’ve noticed a pattern: students who arrive without scores can, on average, have a tougher time once classes start, and some schools responded by bringing tests back. BC hasn’t (yet), but the competitive landscape is still loud and clear: strong academics are non-negotiable.
Even when a school doesn’t require scores, the enrollment data often shows you what the admitted student body looks like. When a sizable chunk of the class is submitting SAT/ACT results, that’s a sign that the school cares about scores!
*Denotes our own calculation based on the raw numbers
Why This Matters: A little less than half of the students who end up enrolling at BC still report standardized test scores. SAT submissions also outpace ACT submissions, which is common nationally, and there’s no real evidence BC treats one test as “better,” so take whichever plays to your strengths.
Now, let’s take a look at the score breakdowns for each section of the ACT and SAT:
| Test | 25th Percentile | 50th Percentile | 75th Percentile |
|---|---|---|---|
| SAT Composite | 1460 | 1500 | 1520 |
| SAT Evidence-Based Reading + Writing | 710 | 740 | 760 |
| SAT Math | 730 | 760 | 780 |
| ACT Composite | 33 | 34 | 35 |
| ACT Math | 30 | 32 | 34 |
| ACT English | 34 | 35 | 35 |
| ACT Science | 32 | 33 | 35 |
| ACT Reading | 34 | 35 | 36 |
Why This Matters: BC’s middle bands sit high enough that “above average” won’t cut it. If you’re aiming to be competitive, you should be thinking 1500+ or 34+.
First-time, first-year students with scores in each range:
| Score Range | SAT Evidence-Based Reading + Writing | SAT Math |
|---|---|---|
| 700-800 | 86% | 91.80% |
| 600-699 | 13% | 7.60% |
| 500-599 | 1% | 0.40% |
| 400-499 | 0.00% | 0.00% |
| 300-399 | 0.00% | 0% |
| 200-299 | 0.10% | 0.10% |
| Score Range | SAT Composite |
|---|---|
| 1400-1600 | 94.80% |
| 1200-1399 | 4.80% |
| 1000-1199 | 0.30% |
| 800-999 | 0.00% |
| 600-799 | 0.10% |
| Score Range | ACT Composite | ACT English | ACT Math | ACT Reading | ACT Science |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 30-36 | 99.20% | 98% | 80.10% | 99.20% | 94.80% |
| 24-29 | 0.80% | 1.90% | 20.00% | 0.80% | 5.20% |
| 18-23 | 0% | 0.30% | 0.00% | 0% | 0% |
Standardized Test Score Takeaways:
The middle of the enrolled pool has a 1500 or a 34, and those are no slouch numbers
Because these numbers reflect enrolled students, plenty of admits who chose other schools likely posted even higher results
A low score can drag you down more than you think, especially when most of the pool looks academically polished
The very small percentages of low scores is not indicative of the standard. Remember, BC cares a lot about football.
Look at the big picture here: BC is selective enough that your academic profile needs to read as “serious.” Even scores that are great compared to the national average can still place you toward the bottom edge of BC’s typical range. A 1460 or 33, the 25th percentile of enrolled students, is ~98th percentile nationwide.
These numbers carry through to class rank, too:
| Class Rank | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Top 10th of HS graduating class | 90.00% |
| Top Quarter of HS graduating class | 96.90% |
| Top Half of HS graduating class | 99.10% |
| Bottom Half of HS graduating class | 0.90% |
| Bottom Quarter of HS graduating class | 0.20% |
| Total submitting class rank | 26.60% |
Key Class Rank Takeaways:
Most enrolled students come from the top 10th of their graduating class
Plenty of high schools don’t report rank, so only 26.6% of enrollees reporting isn’t odd
The 0.9% of students in the bottom half of their graduating class are the ultimate exceptions
Before anyone starts going “but look, someone got in with ___” stats: those tiny categories are admissions unicorns. We don’t know who those students are or what circumstances shaped their outcome. They’re probably athletes. Or maybe they’re first-gen. Maybe they’re coming from an under-resourced school, have extraordinary national-level achievements, or have a context you can’t see in a spreadsheet. The point is: you cannot reverse-engineer an exception and build a plan around it.
TL;DR: If Boston College is the goal, you should be targeting near-perfect academics and the strongest testing you can reasonably produce.
Considerations
This is where the CDS stops being #datadriven. Yes, BC will weigh the obvious academic pieces – course rigor, grades, (optional) scores – but then they layer in the harder-to-quantify “considerations” that don’t come with a scoring key. Annoying? A little. Important? Extremely. Because this is where the way you present yourself becomes super key to the process. Let’s look at academics first:
| Academic Factors | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rigor of secondary school record | X | |||
| Class rank | X | |||
| Academic GPA | X | |||
| Standardized test scores | X | |||
| Application Essay | X | |||
| Recommendation(s) | X |
Key Takeaways for Academic Factors:
BC wants you taking the hardest classes your school offers – AP, IB, or honors is expected
Not all high schools report class rank, so the absence of one won’t automatically hurt you
Having as close to a 4.0 as possible is ideal
| Nonacademic Factors | Very Important | Important | Considered | Not Considered |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Interview | X | |||
| Extracurricular activities | X | |||
| Talent/ability | X | |||
| Character/personal qualities | X | |||
| First generation | X | |||
| Alumni/ae relation | X | |||
| Geographical residence | X | |||
| State residency | X | |||
| Religious affiliation/commitment | X | |||
| Volunteer work | X | |||
| Work experience | X | |||
| Level of applicant’s interest | X |
Key Takeaways for Nonacademic Factors:
BC does not pay attention to demonstrated interest
Them just saying things are important or considered is a little wishy-washy and we don’t like it
You can’t control the things like legacy, first-genor where you live – but you can control how you spend your time and what you pursue outside the classroom
Some of the nonacademic criteria are fixed facts: where you live, whether you have alumni relatives, things like that. You can’t change them, so we don’t recommend obsessing over them. But categories like character, ability, and talent are interpretation-heavy. Admissions is pulling clues from your essays, your recommendations, your involvement, and the overall “voice” of your file. You can’t control the exact conclusion they draw, but you can control the evidence you give them and whether it feels aligned with BC’s culture and values.
And we’re going to push back on the idea that extracurriculars are merely “important.” At BC, how you spend your time outside of class is one of the clearest differentiators in a pool where plenty of students have strong grades. The applicants who pop aren’t just collecting every club and sport on the planet. They’re building depth in a few key areas, showing ownership, direction, and real commitment in ways that connect naturally to what they want to study, how they think, or what they care about long-term. Helping students build that kind of coherent, high-impact profile is literally our job, and we do it every admissions cycle.
Conclusion
Boston College is competitive. That’s not a hot take. But ideally, you now have a much clearer sense of what “competitive” actually looks like beyond reputation, and that’s what lets you plan like a strategist instead of applying on vibes.
Still, you can’t spreadsheet your way into BC. Data can tell you the academic neighborhood you need to live in, but it can’t capture the full personality of the institution or the full person you are. When we work with students – whether for ED, ED2, RD, niche programs, recruited athletes, or complicated contexts, there is no one template. The strongest approach is always the one built around you: your interests, your strengths, your voice, and your trajectory. There’s no universal recipe for admission to Boston College. But there are absolutely intentional choices you can make that change how your application reads, and we can help you make them.
One way to increase your odds? Working with college consultants who are experts in the field and have a high rate of success getting students into Boston College. We help countless students gain admission to top universities every single year – reach out to us today to get started.