The acceptance rate (or admit rate) is the percentage of applicants who receive an offer of admission from a university.
Acceptance rate = (number of students admitted) / (number of students who applied) × 100%. A university with 10,000 applicants and 1,000 offers has a 10% acceptance rate.
Acceptance rates are widely used as a proxy for selectivity. The most selective US universities have acceptance rates below 5%. LUMS and IBA Karachi have acceptance rates in the 15–25% range for competitive programmes. Most public Pakistani universities have higher acceptance rates but lower effective access due to merit cutoffs.
Acceptance rate does not tell you everything: the quality of the applicant pool varies, and a university's acceptance rate for international students may differ from its overall rate.
Understanding acceptance rates helps you build a realistic university list — a mix of ambitious, target, and safety schools. For Pakistani students, the relevant acceptance rate is often the rate for the specific programme (e.g., CS at NUST), not the university overall. Low overall acceptance rate does not mean you should not apply — your individual profile may be stronger than the average applicant.
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