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
Winthrop University Rock Hill, South Carolina	79%
Prairie View A & M University Prairie View, Texas	79%
University of Arkansas Fort Smith Fort Smith, Arkansas	80%
Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan	80%
University of Minnesota Twin Cities Minneapolis, Minnesota	80%
CUNY New York City College of Technology Brooklyn, New York	80%
University of North Carolina at Charlotte Charlotte, North Carolina	80%
Temple University Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	80%
South Dakota School of Mines and Technology Rapid City, South Dakota	80%
The University of Texas at Arlington Arlington, Texas	80%
University of Mary Washington Fredericksburg, Virginia	80%
Indiana State University Terre Haute, Indiana	81%
Westfield State University Westfield, Massachusetts	81%
Wayne State University Detroit, Michigan	81%
University of New Hampshire at Manchester Manchester, New Hampshire	81%
SUNY Polytechnic Institute Utica, New York	81%
State University of New York at Oswego Oswego, New York	81%
Bowling Green State University Main Campus Bowling Green, Ohio	81%

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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.