Colgate's ED Rate Is 1.5x the Non-ED Rate

Colgate University's published acceptance rate for the Class of 2028 (Fall 2024 entering class) is 13.88%, straight from Colgate's own Common Data Set: 2,871 admits out of 20,682 applicants. That figure is accurate, and unlike some schools where the blended rate hides a dramatic split, at Colgate the two rounds aren't that far apart. Applicants who applied Early Decision were admitted at 19.5%. Applicants who applied outside that binding round were admitted at 13.1%. That's a real edge, about 1.5 times the odds, but it's the narrowest gap in this series, not a case where the published number is wildly misleading.

The Decomposition

Show the math: Colgate's Common Data Set 2024-25 (Section C1) reports 20,682 total applications and 2,871 total admits for the Class of 2028, as of October 15, 2024. Section C21 separately reports 2,447 Early Decision applications and 477 ED admits, an ED rate of 477 divided by 2,447, or 19.49%, rounding to 19.5%. Subtracting the ED figures from the overall totals isolates everyone outside the binding round: 20,682 minus 2,447 is 18,235 applications, and 2,871 minus 477 is 2,394 admits. 2,394 divided by 18,235 is 13.13%, rounding to 13.1%. All figures here come from a single, internally consistent Common Data Set filing for the same Fall 2024 cohort, which is what makes this specific decomposition reliable.

Why the Gap Is This Small

Early Decision at Colgate is binding, and the same basic mechanism that drives a large ED advantage at other schools is present here too. An admitted ED applicant has agreed in advance to enroll and to withdraw every other application, which removes yield uncertainty for the admissions office. Regular Decision admits are still weighing offers from multiple schools, so a college has to admit more conservatively in that round to land its target class size. That mechanism is present at Colgate, but it produces a smaller effect here than at many peer schools: a 1.5x gap rather than the 2.5x to 4x range seen elsewhere in this series.

Part of the explanation is simply the relative size of the two applicant pools. Colgate's ED pool of 2,447 applications is a meaningful but not overwhelming share of the 20,682 total, at roughly 12%. A school that fills a larger fraction of its class through a binding round tends to show a wider gap between ED and RD odds, because the RD round is competing for a smaller remaining number of seats. Colgate's RD pool of 18,235 applicants is still competing for the large majority of the class, which keeps its odds closer to the ED pool's than at schools where ED fills a bigger share of the incoming class.

None of this changes the underlying fact: the ED pool at Colgate is still a different population from the RD pool, and ED applicants still get better odds. It's a real, structural advantage. It's just a modest one compared to the extremes in this series, and worth stating plainly rather than dressing up as something larger.

It's also worth being direct about what a 1.5x gap does and doesn't tell an individual applicant. A larger gap at another school might suggest a bigger strategic decision to weigh. A gap this size means Colgate's Regular Decision round isn't nearly as steep a climb relative to Early Decision as the ED-versus-RD framing at other colleges might lead a family to expect. That doesn't make Colgate's overall 13.88% acceptance rate any less selective in absolute terms; it just means the round you apply in matters somewhat less here than it does at many of Colgate's peer institutions.

What This Means for Your Application

The 19.5% ED figure isn't a rate you can borrow for an identical Regular Decision application. The ED and RD pools are different populations, so even this comparatively modest 1.5x gap overstates what switching rounds alone would do for one specific applicant with one specific file. It reflects the odds each pool actually faced, not the odds available to a single student choosing between rounds. For a look at how this same pattern plays out with much larger gaps at other schools, see our breakdown of real acceptance rates.

ED is also a financial commitment as much as an admissions one. Agreeing to Colgate's binding plan means committing to enroll before you've seen its financial aid offer and before you can compare it against any other school's package. If comparing aid matters to your family, that comparison has to happen before you apply ED, not after, because a signed acceptance removes your ability to negotiate or shop the offer once it's in. Given how modest Colgate's ED advantage is compared to other schools, that trade-off deserves a closer look before assuming ED is automatically worth the loss of flexibility.

Colgate is a single undergraduate liberal arts institution with no separate schools or colleges admitting applicants independently, so there's no per-major breakdown to weigh here. The 19.5% and 13.1% figures already describe Colgate's entire applicant pool. Our college list builder can help you see how Colgate's numbers compare to the rest of your list, and our application deadline tracker can help you line up its ED and Regular Decision dates against your other applications.

Because the ED advantage at Colgate is smaller than at many peer schools, whether it's worth the binding commitment depends more than usual on your family's specific circumstances. Talk to a Dewey Smart advisor if you want help weighing that trade-off.

The Waitlist

Colgate's most recent waitlist figures come from the Common Data Set covering the Fall 2025 entering class (Class of 2029), a different and newer cohort than the Class of 2028 headline and ED figures above. That filing reports 2,381 qualified applicants were offered a spot on the waitlist, 1,281 accepted the spot, and 23 were ultimately admitted off the waitlist, a conversion rate of about 1.8% among students who accepted.

Treat these figures as background on how Colgate's waitlist has recently behaved rather than numbers for the same cycle as the ED breakdown above, since the two come from different entering classes. A 1.8% waitlist conversion rate is low in absolute terms, consistent with the pattern at most selective colleges where the waitlist functions primarily as an insurance policy against a school under-enrolling, not as a meaningful secondary admissions path for most students who accept a spot on it.