Vermont's Residency Admit Gap Nearly Vanished in One Year — Yield Didn't Follow

The University of Vermont's published acceptance rate for the Fall 2025 entering class was 73.04%, from 18,576 admits out of 25,434 first-time, first-year applicants. Split by residency, Vermont-resident applicants were admitted at 76.54%, out-of-state applicants at 75.19% — a gap of just 1.35 points, close enough to call it parity. That's notably different from a year earlier: in Fall 2024, in-state applicants were admitted at 74.15% against 65.68% out-of-state, an 8.47-point gap. In one cycle, the residency gap at admission shrank more than sixfold. But look past admit rate to yield — who actually enrolls after getting in — and a much steadier, much wider gap shows up in both years. That's the part of Vermont's data worth paying attention to.

Two Years, Two Different Admit-Rate Stories

Fall 2025 (current entering class):

Fall 2024 (one year earlier):

Both tables are drawn from the University of Vermont's Common Data Set, Section C1 residency supplement, filed by UVM's Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

Show the math: For Fall 2025, 1,491 of 1,948 in-state applicants were admitted, and 1,491 / 1,948 = 76.54%. Out-of-state, 16,695 of 22,205 were admitted, and 16,695 / 22,205 = 75.19%. The gap is 76.54 − 75.19 = 1.35 points. A year earlier, in Fall 2024, 1,391 of 1,876 in-state applicants were admitted (74.15%) against 16,036 of 24,417 out-of-state (65.68%) — a gap of 74.15 − 65.68 = 8.47 points. Subtract the two gaps and the admit-rate divide narrowed by 8.47 − 1.35 = 7.12 percentage points in a single cycle, even as the overall admit rate rose from 65.30% to 73.04%.

The Gap That Narrowed — And the One That Didn't

Yield tells a different story than admit rate. It's the share of admitted students who actually enroll, not the share of applicants who got in, and on that measure Vermont looks nothing like a school where residency stopped mattering. In Fall 2025, in-state admits enrolled at 36.35% (542 of 1,491) against 13.35% for out-of-state admits (2,228 of 16,695) — a ratio of 36.35 / 13.35 = 2.72. In Fall 2024, in-state admits enrolled at 39.25% (546 of 1,391) against 13.81% out-of-state (2,215 of 16,036) — a ratio of 39.25 / 13.81 = 2.84. So while the admit-rate gap between residents and non-residents collapsed from 8.47 points to 1.35, the yield ratio barely moved, sitting at roughly 2.7 to 2.8 times higher for in-state admits in both years.

That combination is worth sitting with. UVM's Common Data Set describes an open admission policy for most applicants, but checks a separate box: "selective admission for out-of-state students" — meaning non-residents are formally evaluated under a distinct basis for selection, even though the two groups' Fall 2025 admit rates ended up nearly identical in practice. Whatever is driving that closer admit-rate outcome, it hasn't touched enrollment. In-state admits — closer to home, paying resident tuition — are consistently far more likely to say yes to their offer than out-of-state admits, who more often weigh UVM against other schools with their own price tags and distances. That's a pattern about student behavior after admission, not about how hard it is to get in.

International Applicants Face a Different Bar

International applicants are the one group admitted at a rate clearly below both domestic groups, in both years. Fall 2025: 390 of 1,281 international applicants were admitted, or 30.44%. Fall 2024: 295 of 845, or 34.91%. That's roughly half the domestic admit rate in both cycles, and it actually declined between the two years even as the overall admit rate rose — the opposite direction from the residency trend. International yield ran higher than out-of-state domestic yield in both years (10.26% and 15.93%), meaning international admits enroll at meaningfully higher rates than out-of-state domestic admits, even though far fewer of them get in to begin with.

What Vermont Doesn't Publish

UVM does not publish an admit-rate breakdown by college or school — not for the Grossman School of Business, the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences, the Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, or any other undergraduate college. The Common Data Set reports enrollment headcounts by demographic category, not applied/admitted counts by college or major, and no such breakdown was found published elsewhere.

There's also no admit-rate split by round. UVM's Common Data Set reports one combined applicant, admit, and enrollment pool that explicitly includes Early Decision, Early Action, Regular Decision, and summer starters together, with no separate breakout published for any single round. If you're weighing whether applying Early Decision or Early Action changes your odds, there's no published number that answers that.

UVM's Common Data Set also reports waitlist activity in both years: for Fall 2025, 2,752 applicants were offered a spot, 1,054 accepted it, and 142 were ultimately admitted off the waitlist. For Fall 2024, 7,348 were offered a spot, 2,833 accepted, and zero were admitted off it — a sharp year-over-year swing in how much the waitlist was actually used.

What This Means for Your Application

If you're a Vermont resident weighing your odds against out-of-state applicants, the current picture — a 1.35-point admit-rate gap — says residency isn't buying you much of an edge at the admit stage this cycle, a real shift from the year before. What matters more for your planning is the yield pattern: in-state admits enroll at more than double the rate of out-of-state admits in both years on record, a signal about how families tend to weigh the offer once it's in hand, not about anyone's chances of getting one. Our free college list builder can help you place UVM correctly relative to your other options given how close the admit rates now run. Because UVM's Common Data Set doesn't separate Early Decision, Early Action, and Regular Decision outcomes, our application deadline tracker keeps every one of UVM's deadlines lined up without assuming an early round buys you better odds than the data can confirm. And if you want to talk through how a narrowing-gap, wide-yield-gap school like this should sit on your list, a free strategy call is a low-pressure way to work through it.