New proprietary research from Oriel Admissions reveals that more than one in four highly selective U.S. universities receive a D or F for admissions data transparency and application guidance.

Princeton, New Jersey--(Newsfile Corp. - July 8, 2026) - Oriel Admissions today announced the release of its first College Admissions Transparency Index, a proprietary research study evaluating 50 of the most selective universities in the United States on how openly they disclose admissions data and how clearly they guide applicants through the admissions process.

Oriel Admissions Announces New College Admissions Transparency Index Evaluating 50 Highly Selective U.S. Universities

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The Index uses only primary, public sources, including official admissions office pages and Common Data Set publications, and measures disclosure practices rather than institutional quality.

The study found that 26% of the universities evaluated received a D or F. Across the 50 institutions, Oriel Admissions assigned 8 A grades, 21 B grades, 8 C grades, 11 D grades and 2 F grades. Public universities in the Index averaged a B, while private universities averaged a C.

"Families are being asked to make one of the biggest decisions of a student's life with less information every year," said Rona Aydin, founder of Oriel Admissions. "A university that asks students to share everything in an application should be willing to share something as basic as an acceptance rate. The Index measures who provides it and who does not."

Full rankings, school-by-school scores, complete methodology and the dataset are available here: https://orieladmissions.com/college-admissions-transparency-index/

About Oriel Admissions

Oriel Admissions is a college admissions consulting firm serving families nationwide. The firm works with families throughout middle school and high school, providing comprehensive and strategic guidance that helps students build distinctive candidacies for the most selective universities.

https://orieladmissions.com/

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