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
Angelo State University San Angelo, Texas	83%
University of Washington Tacoma Campus Tacoma, Washington	83%
University of Connecticut Stamford Stamford, Connecticut	83%
Purdue University Fort Wayne Fort Wayne, Indiana	84%
Indiana University South Bend South Bend, Indiana	84%
Indiana University Southeast New Albany, Indiana	84%
University of Iowa Iowa City, Iowa	84%
Framingham State University Framingham, Massachusetts	84%
University of Massachusetts Boston Boston, Massachusetts	84%
Northern Michigan University Marquette, Michigan	84%
Truman State University Kirksville, Missouri	84%
SUNY College of Agriculture and Technology at Cobleskill Cobleskill, New York	84%
SUNY Old Westbury Old Westbury, New York	84%
Youngstown State University Youngstown, Ohio	84%
University of North Texas at Dallas Dallas, Texas	84%
San Jose State University San Jose, California	85%
Ball State University Muncie, Indiana	85%
University of Louisiana at Monroe Monroe, Louisiana	85%

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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.