Congrats, Class of 2026!

Thanks for your patience on results this year — we’ve been hiring and training new staff, expanding our video series and textbook offerings, and, of course, gearing up for the next application cycle, so things have been a bit hectic around Principia. Here’s a short list of our acceptances for the Class of 2026: 

• Harvard (2) 

• Yale (3) 

• UPenn (2)

• MIT (2)

• Johns Hopkins 

• Vanderbilt (2)

• UVA (11)

• Georgetown (2)

• Duke (2) 

• Northwestern 

• UNC (4)

• UChicago (3) 

• Kenyon

• Cornell (4) 

• UC Berkeley (4)

• UCLA (4)

• USC (2) 

• U Michigan (4)

• UC San Diego 

• Purdue 

• Notre Dame

• NYU 

• GW (2) 

Some thoughts and trends for this application cycle: 

• ED continues to be the strongest path to top-tier schools. Of our students who applied ED (or SCEA), over 90% were accepted.  

• Duke continues their rise to elite levels of selectivity — just 4.6 percent of regular decision students were accepted, compared to about 21% of ED applicants.

• SAT/ACT continue to be a factor for elite schools — all of our students accepted to top 20 schools reported their scores. With MIT and Georgetown shifting to test-required for this coming year, we expect the SAT/ACT to stay relevant for most students.

As always, the richness and variety of stories from our students were astonishing. Reflections on the unpredictability of crabbing; excerpts from an invention journal kept from 3rd grade; a reevaluation of a friendship inspired by Breaking Bad; an exploration of how Kendrick Lamar inspired a love for English: these are just a handful of the unique narratives we were privileged to play a small part in developing. We can’t wait to see what this year’s application cycle brings!