CRNA School Acceptance Rates: Read the Numbers Correctly

A CRNA school acceptance rate should measure admission offers divided by applicants for the same program and cycle. Many public pages publish something else instead: class size, seats available or students enrolled. Divide those numbers by applications and you get cohort size relative to application volume, which doesn't tell you how many applicants received an offer. So check the numerator before you use any percentage to choose schools.

If you're looking for the easiest CRNA schools to get into, you're probably trying to spend your application money where you have a realistic shot. That's a reasonable goal. But a partial table of incompatible admissions figures won't give you a defensible difficulty ranking. Published numbers get useful once you know which question each one answers.

What is the difference between offers, seats and enrolled students?

Offers count applicants invited to join a program. Seats describe planned capacity. Enrollment counts students who actually start. A program might make additional offers when applicants decline, so the final class size doesn't reveal the total number offered admission.

Measure	Calculation	What it tells you
Offer-based acceptance rate	Applicants offered admission ÷ applicants in the defined pool × 100	Share of that pool receiving an offer
Interview invitation rate	Applicants invited to interview ÷ applicants in the same pool × 100	Share invited to that stage
Enrollment-to-application ratio	Students enrolled ÷ applications for the matching cycle × 100	Size of the entering class relative to application volume
Seats-to-application ratio	Available seats ÷ applications × 100	Capacity relative to application volume
Yield	Enrolled students ÷ applicants offered admission × 100	Share of offered applicants who enroll

Illustrative example, not a real school's results: A program receives 300 applications, makes 60 admission offers and enrolls 30 students. Its offer-based acceptance rate is 20%. Its enrollment-to-application ratio is 10%. Its yield is 50%. Call that 10% figure an acceptance rate and you've cut the offer rate in half, even though all three calculations use truthful counts.

Watch the words "admitted" and "accepted," too. Schools sometimes use them in a class-profile table without explaining whether they mean all offers, students who accepted an offer or the final class. Keep the school's label, and ask for clarification before you present it as an offer-based rate.

Which schools publish usable application and admission counts?

Several programs publish useful counts, but their definitions and dates vary. The tables below separate cycle-labeled reports from approximate annual descriptions. Each row keeps the numerator the school reported instead of forcing every number into one acceptance-rate column. These programs are examples, not a complete national list, and they aren't sorted by selectivity.

Reports with a named year or reporting period

Program and official source	Application denominator	Reported numerator	Period and interpretation
Marquette	223 applications received	16 students admitted	Admission year 2026. Page updated July 17, 2026. The table doesn't explicitly define total offers.
Wake Forest	142 applicants	30 admitted, 63 interviews	Admission year 2026. Keep the admission-year table separate from graduation outcomes.
Rosalind Franklin	793 applicants	Class size 53	2026 entering class. This supports a class-size ratio, not an offer count.
Gonzaga	475 applicants as of September 1, 2025	28 spots	October 1, 2025 news report. Shows historical application pressure against capacity. It isn't a current offer-based rate.
FranU	318 applications received	40 accepted, 115 interviews offered	Labeled "Last Admission Cycle," with no calendar year given beside these figures. "Accepted" needs a definition before an offer-rate comparison.
New Mexico State	70 qualified applicants	24 accepted	First cohort, fall 2023. The qualified-applicant denominator excludes any broader pool that didn't meet that definition.
USC	236 total submitted applications	Admission cohort size 26	The program labels these figures "Summer 2027," so the cohort size describes a class that hasn't started yet.

General annual descriptions without a named cohort

These figures describe typical, approximate or maximum numbers. The fact that they're still on a page doesn't turn them into a measured 2026 result.

Program and official source	Published application volume	Published class/admission figure	Limitation
Georgetown	Around 350	About 35 enrolled	Approximate enrollment ratio. No offer count or cohort year stated.
University of North Dakota	Approximately 200 annually	Average class size 25	Approximate class-size ratio.
Mount Marty	Typically 400 to 500 annually	BS-to-DNAP accepts 40, MS-to-DNAP accepts 5	The application count isn't explicitly split between tracks.
MUSC	More than 200 annually	Up to 40 admitted, approximately 60 interview invitations	Lower-bound denominator and maximum admission figure.
University of Kansas	More than 150 annually	Currently 36 admitted annually	No exact denominator or matching cohort year.
Chattanooga	Over 120 annually	Approximately 24 to 30 accepted per class	Check how the application pool, location and class relate before you calculate anything.
Ohio University	Anticipates over 100	Admits up to 25 annually	Anticipated volume isn't an observed application total.
Webster	Approximately 60 to 80 completing the admissions process annually	Up to 24 admitted	Completed-process denominator and a maximum class figure.
University of Puerto Rico	40 to 55, depending on year	Maximum 17 admitted	A range plus a maximum. No exact same-year offer rate.
Baylor College of Medicine	Approximately 120 to 140 annually	28 entry-to-practice students, up to 30 master's-prepared CRNAs	Different pathways are described, so the scope of the application count needs clarification.
Newman	Approximately 200 annually	Currently accepts 20 to 25 annually	The public FAQ gives both figures, but no specific cohort or total-offers definition.

These raw figures are still useful without a ranking. They show the scale of an application pool, whether a program publishes interview counts and which questions still need an answer from the admissions office.

How do I calculate a percentage without overstating it?

Name the resulting measure exactly, keep approximations labeled as approximations (so "about," "around" and "up to" stay in your notes) and keep the cohort right beside the number. Arithmetic won't fix an ambiguous source definition.

For example, 53 divided by 793 is approximately 6.7%. For the Rosalind Franklin 2026 class profile, that's class size divided by applicants. Without the total offers, it doesn't tell you the offer-based acceptance rate is 6.7%.

Marquette's 2026 table gives 16 students admitted and 223 applications, which is about 7.2% using the school's reported admitted count. The 2025 row gives 15 and 187, or about 8.0%. Keep both years labeled so one doesn't silently stand in for the other. And if you need an offer-based comparison, ask whether "students admitted" includes every offer.

Keep a published range as a range instead of presenting a midpoint calculation as an observed rate. For a hypothetical program with 20 enrolled students and 80 to 100 applications, the enrollment ratio ranges from 20% to 25%. A 22.2% midpoint calculation adds precision the published data never had.

The same goes for limits. "More than 200 applications" isn't exactly 200, and "up to 40 admitted" isn't necessarily 40. Those phrases describe limits, so an exact observed rate stays unknown.

Why should I recheck a school's numbers each cycle?

Because they move. Marquette received 187 applications for its 2025 admission year and 223 for 2026, and it admitted 15 and then 16 students. Wake Forest's applicant count ranged from 120 to 171 across admission years 2022 through 2026, while its admitted class grew from 24 to 30. Georgetown's FAQ currently describes around 350 applicants and about 35 enrolled students.

So pull each figure from the program's current page, and keep the year or cycle next to every number you save. A ratio you copied two cycles ago might describe a very different applicant pool.

What is the average CRNA school acceptance rate?

Published numbers can't give you a meaningful national offer-based acceptance rate. The sources above mix exact counts, approximations, qualified applicants, completed admissions processes, planned capacity and final class sizes. Average those ratios together and you'd get a number with no consistent meaning.

Missing data has to stay missing. A school with no usable public offer count isn't a school with zero offers. And a program that publishes more detail shouldn't automatically be treated as representative of other programs.

Even a complete application-level national total would need careful labeling. One nurse might submit applications to several schools, so if you add up school application counts, you're counting applications, not unique nurses. Measuring how many individual nurses receive at least one offer takes a different dataset.

Which CRNA schools are easiest to get into?

Published numbers can't honestly name an easiest school. A larger class-to-application ratio might reflect a different applicant pool, pathway, reporting period or denominator. It doesn't show easier eligibility or a higher chance for your application.

So use the question to pin down the constraint you're actually trying to solve. If your concern is an unmet prerequisite, find programs whose current course policies you meet. If it's GPA, verify the required GPA type and minimum. If it's the GRE, check the program's current test policy and any conditional requirement.

Meeting the minimums puts you in a different position from having an application that's ready for selection. And an admitted class's average isn't a new minimum. Duke, for example, describes evaluating experience alongside academic measures, and a rate alone can't show how your clinical preparation or application will be evaluated. See its official admissions explanation.

Use choosing a CRNA program to compare practical fit alongside eligibility. Accreditation, education outcomes, cost, relocation and clinical requirements each deserve their own review, because you can't infer them from selectivity. Verify accreditation through the COA's current program list.

How do I use admissions data to build my list?

Make a comparison sheet where the unknowns stay visible. Start with eligibility and whether you can realistically attend, then add admissions counts once those questions are settled.

Decision	Evidence to record	Action if unresolved
Am I eligible for this pathway and cycle?	Current official prerequisites, GPA definitions, licensure and experience rules	Ask the program about your exact situation.
What does this published percentage measure?	Numerator, denominator, cohort year and source date	Keep the raw counts and the ratio's actual meaning.
Is the denominator relevant to me?	All applications, completed applications or qualified applicants	Ask which pool the program reports.
Does the program fit my life and budget?	Attendance, clinical locations and full cost information	Sort out the practical constraint before you pay an application fee.
What still needs confirmation?	Missing information and a dated contact record	Send a specific question and save the reply.

A useful admissions email reads like this: "For your [year, pathway] cycle, how many completed applications did you receive, how many applicants received an offer including waitlist offers, and how many enrolled? Does the published admitted figure include all offers or only the final class?"

Our Final Thoughts

Hold on to the numbers that help you understand a program, along with the labels that keep them honest. Then put your prep time into the requirements and application decisions that are yours to control. Start with the program directory, write down the eligibility questions you still can't answer and reach out to those programs before you build your list around a percentage. It's a small step, and it's one you can take this week.