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
Southwest Minnesota State University Marshall, Minnesota	62%
The College of New Jersey Ewing, New Jersey	62%
State University of New York at New Paltz New Paltz, New York	62%
University of Alaska Southeast Juneau, Alaska	63%
University of Missouri St Louis Saint Louis, Missouri	63%
Farmingdale State College Farmingdale, New York	63%
SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry Syracuse, New York	63%
Florida Gulf Coast University Fort Myers, Florida	63%
Oregon State University Cascades Campus Bend, Oregon	63%
University of Central Missouri Warrensburg, Missouri	64%
CUNY Queens College Queens, New York	64%
CUNY York College Jamaica, New York	64%
Elizabeth City State University Elizabeth City, North Carolina	64%
University of North Carolina Wilmington Wilmington, North Carolina	64%
Texas A&M University Texarkana Texarkana, Texas	64%
Eastern Illinois University Charleston, Illinois	65%
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, New Jersey	65%
Minot State University Minot, North Dakota	65%

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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.