The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College and The Short List: Grad School to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
High school seniors can easily spend the year consumed by deadlines. There are usually firm dates for everything from purchasing prom tickets to taking the SAT or ACT. As they work on college applications, though, they may get a break from deadlines if they consider schools with rolling admissions.
Schools with this kind of admissions policy usually allow prospective students to apply as long as there are open seats to fill. Instead of an application deadline, schools may have a priority deadline, which can help students gauge when to submit an application. Out of 268 ranked National Universities, 79 offer rolling admissions, according to data submitted to U.S. News. National Universities offer a large variety of concentrations at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and are committed to groundbreaking research.
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Some highly ranked National Universities accept students through rolling admissions. Pennsylvania State University–University Park, for example, uses rolling admissions and is tied for No. 48 — the highest rank of all National Universities with this kind of admissions policy.
Penn State has also previously topped the list of highly ranked schools with rolling admissions. New to this year’s list are Indiana University–Bloomington, tied with other schools for No. 76, and Binghamton University–SUNY, which is tied with other institutions for No. 88.
[See photos of schools that are highly ranked and text flexible.]
Baylor University was included on this list in the past, but the Texas school now has an application deadline of Feb. 1.
Below is a list of National Universities with the highest ranks that have rolling admissions policies. These schools may have firm deadlines for other admissions-related opportunities, such as scholarships. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | U.S. News National University rank | Priority deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Pennsylvania State University–University Park | 48 (tie) | Nov. 30 |
| Purdue University–West Lafayette (IN) | 62 (tie) | Feb. 1 |
| University of Pittsburgh | 62 (tie) | N/A |
| Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey–New Brunswick | 70 | Dec. 1 |
| University of Minnesota–Twin Cities | 71 (tie) | Dec. 15 |
| Indiana University–Bloomington | 76 (tie) | Feb. 1 |
| SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry | 76 (tie) | Feb. 1 |
| Michigan State University | 85 (tie) | Nov. 1 |
| Binghamton University–SUNY | 88 (tie) | Jan. 15 |
| Stony Brook University–SUNY | 88 (tie) | Jan. 15 |
| University of Alabama | 88 (tie) | Feb. 1 |
| University of Tulsa (OK) | 88 (tie) | Feb. 1 |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find application fee data, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2014 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges or Best Graduate Schools. The application fee data above are correct as of Sept. 18, 2014.
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Highest-Ranked Schools With Rolling Admissions originally appeared on usnews.com