NYUAD admitted 189 applicants, or 2.1 percent of the 9,048 applications filed for its first entering class. Which is significantly less than peer institutions like the University of Southern California and The George Washington University at 24.2 and 31.5 percent respectively and also considerably lower than NYU’s Washington Square campus, which had an acceptance rate of 29.8 percent.
“From the beginning, we hoped that NYU Abu Dhabi would be the ‘World’s Honors College,’ ” NYU President John Sexton said in a statement. “Our inaugural class exceeds even these aggressive goals: Indeed, by the available measures, they are arguably the most selective and internationally diverse entering class in the world.”
150 of the 189 accepted students opted to attend NYUAD this fall, giving the college one of the highest yields, the percentage of students who say yes to an offer of admission, in the country at 79.4 percent.
Most of the accepted students applied directly to NYUAD. Only 15 percent of the incoming class indicated interest in the Washington Square campus on their applications.