United States Public Colleges Ranked by Highest Acceptance Rate

Below is a ranking of the 633 public colleges in the United States with the highest acceptance rate for freshman undergraduate applications. Athens State 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.

List of United States Public Colleges Ranked by Highest Acceptance Rate
College	Acceptance Rate
SUNY College at Potsdam Potsdam, New York	78%
State University of New York at Plattsburgh Plattsburgh, New York	78%
Winston Salem State University Winston-Salem, North Carolina	78%
University of Central Oklahoma Edmond, Oklahoma	78%
West Chester University of Pennsylvania West Chester, Pennsylvania	78%
The University of Alabama Tuscaloosa, Alabama	77%
Fort Lewis College Durango, Colorado	77%
University of Illinois Chicago Chicago, Illinois	77%
Morehead State University Morehead, Kentucky	77%
University of North Dakota Grand Forks, North Dakota	77%
University of Oklahoma Norman Campus Norman, Oklahoma	77%
Oregon State University Corvallis, Oregon	77%
University of California Riverside Riverside, California	76%
Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College Tifton, Georgia	76%
University of Idaho Moscow, Idaho	76%
Indiana University Indianapolis Indianapolis, Indiana	76%
Massachusetts College of Art and Design Boston, Massachusetts	76%
Kean University Union, New Jersey	76%

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This list is updated annually based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last updated: August 2026

Data source: IPEDS 2025 survey for academic year 2024/2025 - National Center for Education Statistics.