U.S. Colleges Hardest to Get Into
Colleges with the Lowest Acceptance Rate in America for 2018
These are the most selective colleges in the United States. We've ranked the schools which reject over fifty percent of applicants by rate of acceptance. Leading the list is Harvard University which sent acceptance letters to only 5% of the 39,041 students who applied and rejected 95%. Interestingly, not all schools on our "most selective" lists are overly academically challenging. Schools with less rigorous standardized test and high school GPA requirements may receive a large numbers of qualified applicants and the school does not have the capacity to potentially enroll.
| Rank | College | Percent Admitted | Academic Difficulty | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts 39,041 Applicants |
5% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 2 | Stanford University Stanford, California 43,997 Applicants |
5% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 3 | Yale University New Haven, Connecticut 31,445 Applicants |
6% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 4 | The Juilliard School New York, New York 2,545 Applicants |
6% | N/A | Chance |
| 5 | Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey 29,303 Applicants |
7% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 6 | Columbia University in the City of New York New York, New York 37,009 Applicants |
7% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 7 | California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California 6,855 Applicants |
8% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 8 | University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois 31,484 Applicants |
8% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 9 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts 19,020 Applicants |
8% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 10 | Claremont McKenna College Claremont, California 6,342 Applicants |
9% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 11 | Pomona College Claremont, California 8,102 Applicants |
9% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 12 | University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 38,918 Applicants |
9% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 13 | Brown University Providence, Rhode Island 32,390 Applicants |
9% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 14 | Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering Needham, Massachusetts 1,296 Applicants |
10% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 15 | Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois 35,100 Applicants |
11% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 16 | Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire 20,675 Applicants |
11% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 17 | Duke University Durham, North Carolina 31,671 Applicants |
11% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 18 | Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee 32,442 Applicants |
11% | Very Hard | Chance |
| 19 | Southern University at New Orleans New Orleans, Louisiana 1,907 Applicants |
12% | Easy | Chance |
| 20 | Harvey Mudd College Claremont, California 4,180 Applicants |
13% | Very Hard | Chance |