Per U.S. News data, 143 ranked National Universities use rolling admissions.
Applying to college tends to be a deadline-driven process with prospective students checking off dates as they go. But application deadlines vary, with many landing in January for regular decision and even earlier for early action and early decision.
Then there’s rolling admissions, a process in which colleges evaluate applications as they are received. Once the admissions cycle opens, such colleges typically continue to evaluate applications until the incoming class is filled. That offers more flexibility for students, meaning colleges with rolling admissions can be great last-minute options.
Rolling admissions, however, is far from universal. Of the ranked National Universities that submitted data to U.S. News in an annual survey, 143 offered rolling admissions. National Universities are schools that tend to be research-oriented and offer a full range of undergraduate majors as well as master’s and doctoral programs.
While rolling admissions means that colleges will review applications as received, there may still be priority deadlines for when a school prefers to have information submitted. All 10 colleges listed here have priority application dates. Three have priority application deadlines in November, three have deadlines in December, two are in January and two are in February.
Of the top-ranked 10 colleges with rolling admissions, including ties, three are Rutgers University campuses located in New Jersey. Rutgers University—New Brunswick, ranked No. 40, is the highest-ranked college that reported using rolling admissions. Purdue University—West Lafayette, ranked No. 43, is the next highest-ranked school. Five of the 10 schools are members of the Big Ten athletic conference.
Two of the 10 schools are ranked in the top 50 National Universities overall, and all 10 are ranked inside the top 100. Of these 10 colleges, Rochester Institute of Technology in New York is the only private institution.
Below is a list of the 10 highest-ranked National Universities with rolling admissions, including ties. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
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