Did you apply to the Carnegie Mellon Class of 2029? If so, you’re probably either celebrating right now or taking stock of your college admissions journey, depending on the outcome. Carnegie Mellon has sent out admissions decisions to this latest crop of applicants, but the prestigious private research university has yet to release any admissions data to the public. The anticipation is high as we await the number of students who applied and were admitted, but this data is forthcoming in CMU’s next edition of the federally mandated Common Data Set.

Carnegie Mellon University Acceptance Rate and Admissions Statistics (Classes of 2029 — 2020)

Carnegie Mellon Class Year	Total Applications Received	Total Applications Accepted	Overall Acceptance Rate
Class of 2029	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published	Not Yet Published
Class of 2028	33,941	3,959	11.66%
Class of 2027	33,707	3,843	11.40%
Class of 2026	34,261	3,873	11.30%
Class of 2025	32,896	4,453	13.54%
Class of 2024	26,189	4,524	17.27%
Class of 2023	27,634	4,267	15.44%
Class of 2022	24,351	4,170	17.12%
Class of 2021	20,497	4,550	22.20%
Class of 2020	21,189	4,601	21.71%

CMU’s Class of 2029 in Historical Perspective

It wouldn’t take a Carnegie Mellon statistician to interpret the data above. Over the past few admissions cycles, the CMU acceptance rate has been on a downward trajectory as applications have exceeded 30,000. Last year neither set a new record for applicants or acceptance rate (both of those records were set by the Class of 2026’s 34,261 applicants and 3,873 admits, which produced a record 11.3% acceptance rate), but instead maintained the last four or so years of plateauing admissions.

Will the Class of 2029 be any different? This year wasn’t easy for many of the nation’s most elite college admissions offices. The Ivy League, for example, uniformly reported declining applications and increasing acceptance rates. However, it’s possible that CMU, with its unique position and strong STEM programs, managed to attract many STEM-oriented students who were turned off by the many high-profile scandals from other top schools this year. Could a new caliber of highly technical schools emerge to pick up the slack of America’s traditional colleges? Only time will tell.

Demographics of Carnegie Mellon’s Class of 2029

Unfortunately, CMU hasn’t shared a single detail on their new admits. We don’t know how many applied, the rate at which they were accepted, whether there are more or less Pell Grant-eligible students in this year’s class versus last year, what the gender ratio looks like, or the racial makeup. We do know some (but not all) of these details as they relate to the Class of 2028. The Tartans admitted last year hailed from 47 states and 43 countries. 8.8% of them were first-generation, a proportion that is remarkably lower than many of CMU’s elite college counterparts.

But that’s all we know about the CMU Class of 2028. Carnegie Mellon’s stance against sharing too much data on recent admits reflects a recent vogue among highly selective colleges for keeping such data close to the vest to avoid media scrutiny or, worse, legal scrutiny. Such is the state of affairs in a post-Affirmative Action world (since our nation’s Supreme Court ruled this way in 2023!).

Still, those bonafide Tartans who got into the Class of 2029 should be pretty proud of themselves, as earning admission to an elite university is, for the most part, harder today than it ever once was. And for those of you who are dreaming of joining the CMU community in the future, read on to learn how Ivy Coach can help make this dream a reality!

Ivy Coach’s Assistance With Carnegie Mellon Admission

If you’re interested in optimizing your child’s odds of admission to Carnegie Mellon, fill out Ivy Coach’s complimentary consultation form and we’ll be in touch with an outline of our services led by our team of former elite college admissions officers.