These are the most selective public and private four-year colleges in New York. The list is ranked by acceptance rate, lowest to highest and limited to schools which reject at least half of all applicants. Leading the list is Columbia University in the City of New York which sent acceptance letters to only 4% of the 60,879 students who applied and rejected 96%.
Not all schools on the most selective list are overly academically challenging. Some schools with less rigorous test and high school GPA requirements may receive a large numbers of qualified applicants and the school does not have space to admit them all.
If you're looking for challenging colleges, explore rankings of New York colleges with the highest SAT scores, highest ACT scores and highest GPA's.
28 results
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
4% Acceptance Rate
#22 Best Colleges in America
Applications Due Jan 1
Private 4 Year
2 reviews
7% Acceptance Rate
#19 Best Colleges in America
Applications Due Jan 2
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
9% Acceptance Rate
#5 Best Private Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 4
Private 4 Year
3 reviews
11% Acceptance Rate
Applications Due Dec 1
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
12% Acceptance Rate
#3 Best Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 15
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
12% Acceptance Rate
#3 Best Value Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 5
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
12% Acceptance Rate
#6 Best Private Colleges in New York
Public 4 Year
0 reviews
12% Acceptance Rate
Applications Due Jan 31
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
19% Acceptance Rate
#7 Best Private Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 1
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
21% Acceptance Rate
Applications Due Jan 15
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
22% Acceptance Rate
Applications Due Jan 8
Public 4 Year
0 reviews
24% Acceptance Rate
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
26% Acceptance Rate
Private 4 Year
1 reviews
26% Acceptance Rate
#8 Best Private Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 15
Public 4 Year
0 reviews
27% Acceptance Rate
Applications Due Mar 1
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
32% Acceptance Rate
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
39% Acceptance Rate
#10 Best Private Colleges in New York
Applications Due Jan 5
Private 4 Year
0 reviews
40% Acceptance Rate