Prairie State Wire

One Illinois university made a list of 20 schools that defied recent trends and posted the smallest decreases in student acceptance rates over the past 12 years, according to a new study by BusinessStudent.com.

Topping that list was William & Mary University in Virginia, which saw its acceptance rate actually increase 12.5 percent between 2006 and 2018, the analysis found.

The Illinois college on the list was University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where the acceptance rate was down 7.7 percent. 

Among the 51 top schools in the study, the average college acceptance rate was 35.9 percent in 2006, compared to the current 22.6 percent. Average acceptance rates across all 50 states are down by 37 percent between 2006 and 2018, the study concluded.

The decline is attributed to an increased demand for admissions, particularly among international students, into top-rated, U.S. schools. 

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U.S. Colleges with the Lowest Decrease in Acceptance Rates

Rank	School	2006 Acceptance Rate	2018 Acceptance Rate	% Decrease
1	William & Mary University	32%	36%	-12.5%
2	Syracuse University	51%	52%	-2%
3	Penn State University	58%	56%	3.4%
4	Brandeis University	36%	34%	5.6%
5	Boston College	29%	27%	6.9%
6	University of Wisconsin	58%	53.8%	7.2%
7	University of Illinois	65%	60%	7.7%
8	University of Texas at Austin	49%	40%	18.4%
9	University of North Carolina	34%	27%	20.6%
10	Emory University	24%	18.5%	22.9%
11	University of Florida	48%	36%	25%
12	University of Virginia	37%	26.5%	28.4%
13	Washington University in St. Louis	21%	15%	28.6%
14	Yale University	9%	6.3%	30%
15	University of Washington	68%	45%	33.8%
16	Rensselaer University	67%	44.3%	33.9%
17	Georgetown University	22%	14.5%	34.1%
18	Rochester University	45%	29.6%	34.2%
19	Notre Dame University	32%	21%	34.4%
20	Carnegie Mellon University	34%	22%	35.3%

Source: BusinessStudent.com