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
Rutgers University New Brunswick New Brunswick, New Jersey	58%
CUNY Brooklyn College Brooklyn, New York	58%
East Central University Ada, Oklahoma	58%
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	58%
Florida Polytechnic University Lakeland, Florida	58%
University of Arkansas at Little Rock Little Rock, Arkansas	59%
Minnesota State University Moorhead Moorhead, Minnesota	59%
University of Massachusetts Amherst Amherst, Massachusetts	60%
CUNY City College New York, New York	60%
Fashion Institute of Technology New York, New York	60%
State University of New York at Cortland Cortland, New York	60%
University of Akron Main Campus Akron, Ohio	60%
College of Charleston Charleston, South Carolina	60%
University of South Carolina Columbia Columbia, South Carolina	60%
Colorado School of Mines Golden, Colorado	61%
University of Hawaii at Hilo Hilo, Hawaii	61%
Ohio State University Main Campus Columbus, Ohio	61%
Penn State Main Campus University Park, Pennsylvania	61%

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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.