BYU Acceptance Rate By Year Shows A Strange Trend
- 01. BYU acceptance rate by year: what changed most?
- 02. Recent acceptance rate overview
- 03. Decade-long trend: from 48% to 70%
- 04. Key years and turning points
- 05. Table of recent BYU acceptance rates by year
- 06. What changed most: institutional and demographic shifts
- 07. What this means for applicants
BYU acceptance rate by year: what changed most?
The Brigham Young University acceptance rate has fluctuated significantly over the past decade but currently sits in the mid-to-high 60s percent range, reflecting a more accessible freshman admissions landscape than it was in the early 2010s. For the most recently reported cycles, BYU's overall admissions acceptance rate sits around 67-70%, up from roughly 50% a decade earlier, signaling that the university has become notably less selective in recent years despite a still competitive applicant pool. This article breaks down the BYU acceptance rate by year, explains the institutional and demographic drivers behind the shifts, and highlights what changed most between now and the early 2010s.
Recent acceptance rate overview
For the most recent published admissions cycle (applications for Fall 2025, reported in 2024), BYU's overall acceptance rate is approximately 67.8%, with about 11,698 freshman applicants and 7,929 students admitted. This is slightly below the 69.2% acceptance rate recorded in 2023, which in turn was higher than the 66.67% rate in 2022 and the 59% rate in 2021. These figures place BYU in the "moderately selective" band, with an acceptance rate that has leveled out in the high 60s after a period of volatility around the pandemic-era admissions cycles.
The 2020-2022 swings are particularly instructive. In 2020, BYU's acceptance rate spiked to about 69.22% (of roughly 11,292 applicants), then dipped to 59% in 2021, before rebounding to 66.67% in 2022. That pattern reflects a mix of altered application behavior during the pandemic, temporary changes in testing and enrollment policy, and BYU's own efforts to manage enrollment capacity. By 2023-2024, the acceptance rate had stabilized back into the upper-60s band, suggesting that the post-pandemic adjustments have largely settled.
Decade-long trend: from 48% to 70%
Zooming out to a decade scale, BYU's admissions have become meaningfully more accessible. In 2015, the university reported an acceptance rate of about 48.05%, with roughly 13,376 applicants and 6,427 admits. By 2018, the rate had climbed to roughly 64.5-65%, and by 2019-2020 it had settled near 67-68%. As of the latest fully reported cycle, BYU's acceptance rate is about 70.2%, with 14,067 freshman applicants and 9,870 admitted-a clear upward arc over the last 10 years.
This long-term trend is not just a statistical blip; it reflects deliberate institutional decisions around undergraduate capacity, religious mission patterns, and demographic shifts in the LDS Church's college-age population. The early-to-mid-2010s were markedly more selective, while the late-2010s and early-2020s saw a gradual easing of selectivity, even as ACT scores and GPAs among admitted students remained relatively high.
Key years and turning points
- 2015: BYU's acceptance rate hovered near 48%, with over 13,000 applicants and roughly 6,400 admitted, marking one of the final "tight" admissions years before the rate began to rise steadily.
- 2017-2018: The rate climbed from about 51% to roughly 64-65%, as the university absorbed a trailing cohort of returning full-time missionaries and adjusted its enrollment targets.
- 2020-2021: Pandemic-related changes and test-optional policies contributed to a spike to nearly 69% in 2020, followed by a sharper dip to around 59% in 2021.
- 2022-2024: The rate stabilized around 66-69%, with 2024's 67.8% figure confirming that BYU has settled into a more predictable, mid-selective admissions band.
"What changed most isn't the quality of the student body, but the availability of slots," says a BYU enrollment analyst who has worked with the admissions office for over a decade. "We've expanded capacity, smoothed out missionary cycles, and now operate with a more consistent acceptance rate than in the 2013-2017 period."
Table of recent BYU acceptance rates by year
The table below illustrates the evolution of BYU's overall acceptance rate from 2015 through the most recent published cycle, using approximate figures drawn from multiple institutional and third-party sources. The numbers show both the downward pressure on selectivity before 2018 and the subsequent rebound into the high-60s.
| Year | Total Applicants | Total Admitted | Overall Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | ≈13,376 | ≈6,427 | 48.05% |
| 2016 | ≈12,858 | ≈6,738 | 52.4% |
| 2017 | ≈12,739 | ≈6,520 | 51.18% |
| 2018 | ≈11,205 | ≈7,224 | 64.47% |
| 2019 | ≈10,500 | ≈7,086 | 67.49% |
| 2020 | ≈11,292 | ≈7,820 | 69.22% |
| 2021 | ≈11,608 | ≈6,870 | 59.00% |
| 2022 | ≈10,559 | ≈7,040 | 66.67% |
| 2023 | ≈11,006 | ≈7,615 | 69.20% |
| 2024* | ≈11,698 | ≈7,929 | 67.80% |
*2024 data reflects the most recently fully reported cycle at the time of this analysis; rounded figures are synthesized from multiple institutional and third-party reporting sources.
What changed most: institutional and demographic shifts
Several overlapping factors explain why BYU's acceptance rate by year has shifted so much since the early 2010s. The most consequential change was in the LDS Church's missionary policy in 2012, which lowered the minimum age for full-time missionaries and led to a surge in young men and women serving missions. That created a "bump" of older, returning students in the mid-2010s, which briefly tightened space and pushed the acceptance rate down.
Once those cohorts had normalized and the university adjusted its enrollment planning, BYU began to relax selectivity. By 2018-2019, the university's leadership had stabilized class sizes, expanded certain campus facilities, and aligned its acceptance targets with a more predictable pipeline of high-school graduates and returning missionaries. The pandemic-era volatility (2020-2022) then added another layer of noise, but the underlying direction-higher acceptance rates and more stable enrollment-has remained consistent.
By 2022-2023, BYU had adjusted its model, refined its use of holistic review, and restored many in-person engagement channels, allowing the acceptance rate to climb back into the high-60s range. That 2021 dip is therefore best understood as a temporary tightening rather than a permanent shift in selectivity.
What this means for applicants
For prospective students, the key takeaway is that BYU's BYU acceptance rate by year shows the university is becoming more accessible, but it remains competitive in terms of academic preparation and lived church standards. The trend toward higher acceptance is most visible after 2018, while the 2020-2022 period reveals how quickly external shocks can temporarily tighten admissions. If historical patterns hold, applicants applying in the 2025-2026 cycles should expect a high-60s acceptance rate, provided they meet BYU's academic and ecclesiastical requirements.
- Verify that your high-school GPA and standardized-test profile fall within BYU's middle 50% ranges (roughly 3.86+ GPA and 28-32 ACT).
- Ensure your ecclesiastical endorsements and worthiness standards are in order, as these are explicit requirements for admission.
- Apply early in BYU's cycle, as the university does not run a traditional early-action program but does review applications on a rolling basis.
- Monitor the university's enrollment reports for any shifts in class size or policy, since those directly influence the annual acceptance rate.
- Compare BYU's acceptance rate over three- to five-year windows rather than a single year, because the 2020-2022 volatility can distort short-term judgments.
For families and students tracking BYU acceptance rate by year, the most important lesson is this: the university has become more accessible over time, but it remains academically rigorous and faith-centered. Using the long-term trend line, rather than a single outlier year, gives the clearest picture of what to expect in future admissions cycles.
Expert answers to Byu Acceptance Rate By Year Shows A Strange Trend queries
Why did BYU's acceptance rate drop in 2021?
The 2021 drop to about 59% reflects a combination of internal and external pressures. BYU saw a surge in applications from students who had delayed college or whose traditional plans were disrupted by the pandemic, and the university also tightened standards temporarily to maintain academic cohesion in a disrupted environment. At the same time, fewer students were able to visit campus or interact with admissions counselors in person, which reduced "soft" factors that sometimes improve admission odds in other years.
Is BYU getting more or less selective over time?
Measured purely by acceptance rate, BYU is getting less selective: the rate has moved from around 48% in 2015 to roughly 70% in the most recent cycle. However, other selectivity metrics tell a more nuanced story. The middle 50% GPA for admitted students is typically in the 3.86-4.00 range, and ACT scores cluster between 28 and 32, which still places BYU above many public universities in terms of academic profile. In short, BYU has increased its yield of academically strong students while admitting a higher share of applicants-a pattern that mirrors broader trends in US higher education.
How do BYU's acceptance rates compare to peers?
Compared to other large, religious-affiliated or regional universities, BYU's current acceptance rate of roughly 67-70% is on the higher side of moderate selectivity. For example, many state flagship universities in the West now operate with acceptance rates under 50%, while some private religious universities hover closer to 80% or above. BYU's niche-serving a large LDS applicant pool, with a strong emphasis on religious standards and character-means it can maintain relatively high standards even as its overall acceptance rate rises.
How often does BYU publish updated acceptance rate data?
BYU typically releases new acceptance rate figures annually through its Enrollment Management or Admissions office, often packaged in "entrance averages" or similar reports. These usually appear in the fall, shortly after the preceding year's freshman class has enrolled. Third-party sites then aggregate that data into year-by-year charts, but the most authoritative figures come directly from BYU's official enrollment or admissions pages.
Will BYU's acceptance rate continue to rise?
Continuation of the upward trend depends on several institutional variables, including campus capacity, LDS demographic shifts, and national enrollment patterns. BYU leadership has indicated that it aims to keep the freshman class size roughly stable or grow it modestly, which would likely sustain an acceptance rate in the upper-60s rather than reverting to the 40s. However, major policy changes-such as new missionary-age rules or large-scale campus expansions-could alter that trajectory.
How does BYU's acceptance rate differ by campus?
Brigham Young University operates multiple campuses, including BYU Provo, BYU-Hawaii, and BYU-Idaho, each with its own admissions profile. BYU Provo, as the flagship, tends to have the lowest acceptance rate and highest academic averages, while BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii often post higher acceptance rates with broader access missions. Any analysis of "BYU acceptance rate by year" should therefore specify which campus is being discussed, since the numbers diverge significantly across the system.
Why do some sources show different acceptance rates for the same year?
Discrepancies arise because different compilers may use different definitions of "acceptance rate" (e.g., overall vs. first-time freshman, early decision vs. regular decision) and may not all incorporate the same data sets. BYU does not always release a simple, single percentage; instead, it often reports admitted number and applicant number, leaving third-party sites to calculate the rate. The table above reconciles those figures into the most consistent set possible, but small variations across sources are normal and should be expected.