United States Private Colleges Ranked by Highest Acceptance Rate
Below is a ranking of the 1198 private colleges in the United States with the highest acceptance rate for freshman undergraduate applications. Amridge University leads the list by accepting 100% of high school students that applied.
Acceptance rate is a measure of the competitiveness of a school. Lower acceptance rates are more competitive and may require a higher GPA, SAT/ACT score, and other factors to be considered for admission.
| College | Acceptance Rate |
|---|---|
|
Barnard College
New York, New York |
9% |
|
Cornell University
Ithaca, New York |
9% |
|
The Juilliard School
New York, New York |
9% |
|
New York University
New York, New York |
9% |
|
Northwestern University
Evanston, Illinois |
8% |
|
Williams College
Williamstown, Massachusetts |
8% |
|
Rice University
Houston, Texas |
8% |
|
Pomona College
Claremont, California |
7% |
|
Bowdoin College
Brunswick, Maine |
7% |
|
Colby College
Waterville, Maine |
7% |
|
Swarthmore College
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania |
7% |
|
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, Maryland |
6% |
|
Duke University
Durham, North Carolina |
6% |
|
Vanderbilt University
Nashville, Tennessee |
6% |
|
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, Massachusetts |
5% |
|
Northeastern University
Boston, Massachusetts |
5% |
|
Dartmouth College
Hanover, New Hampshire |
5% |
|
Princeton University
Princeton, New Jersey |
5% |
This list is updated annually based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last updated: March 15, 2026
Data source: IPEDS 2025 survey for academic year 2024/2025 - National Center for Education Statistics.