United States Public Colleges Ranked by Lowest Acceptance Rate

Below is a ranking of the 633 public colleges in the United States with the lowest acceptance rate for freshman undergraduate applications. University of California Los Angeles leads the list by accepting 9% 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 Lowest Acceptance Rate
College	Acceptance Rate
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%
SUNY College of Technology at Alfred Alfred, New York	76%
Southeastern Oklahoma State University Durant, Oklahoma	76%
Tennessee Technological University Cookeville, Tennessee	76%
University of Wisconsin La Crosse La Crosse, Wisconsin	76%
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%
Jacksonville State University Jacksonville, Alabama	78%
University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, Colorado	78%

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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.