How do Northwestern and Cornell compare in overall acceptance rate?

Northwestern and Cornell are both highly selective, but Cornell’s overall acceptance rate is typically a bit higher than Northwestern’s. In straightforward terms, Northwestern is usually slightly harder to get into by overall admit rate, while Cornell, despite being extremely competitive, admits a somewhat larger share of applicants. Part of that difference comes from Cornell’s larger undergraduate enrollment and the fact that it includes multiple colleges with different applicant pools.

That said, the gap is not large enough to make either one a “safer” option in any meaningful way. Both schools deny the vast majority of applicants, and year-to-year numbers can shift depending on application volume and which Cornell college you are applying to.

For a student building a list, the practical takeaway is to treat both as reach schools. If you are comparing them only on selectivity, Northwestern usually comes out a little tighter overall, while Cornell is still firmly in the same top tier of competitiveness.

One reason you may be seeing different numbers online is that some sources use older Common Data Set figures, and some report Cornell as one university without noting that admission selectivity can vary across its individual colleges. So the cleanest comparison is: both are extremely hard to enter, and Northwestern’s overall acceptance rate is usually modestly lower than Cornell’s.