The 35 hardest colleges to get into in America

Admissions at some of America's most prestigious institutions have become increasingly competitive.
Small curated programs and large applicant pools can contribute to low acceptance rates at schools.
The California Institute of Technology is the hardest US university to get into, per 2024 data.

For some schools across the US, a low single-digit acceptance rate has become shorthand for prestige.

With increasingly accomplished high school students competing for limited spots at some of the nation's top universities, a 4.0 GPA may no longer be enough to stand out in a crowded applicant pool. At some elite colleges, admissions have only become more competitive in recent decades.

Harvard, for example, received 18,190 applications in 1996, as reported by the school's student newspaper. Only 10.9% of applicants were admitted, which, at the time, was the school's lowest acceptance rate on record.

For the Class of 2029, Harvard received 47,893 applications. The college admitted 2,003 students —a similar number of spots for prospective students as it had 30 years ago —for an acceptance rate of 4.2%.

Some of the hardest colleges to get into in the US are big-name schools with tens of thousands of students, while others are specialized, curated science or arts programs with only a couple of hundred students.

Business Insider looked at the most recent available data from the National Center for Education Statistics' College Navigator and identified the most selective schools in the country that admitted 10% or less of their applicants. These were then ranked from lowest to highest acceptance rate for the 2024-2025 school year.

For schools with the same acceptance rate, ties were broken by the number of applicants, with schools that received more applications ranking higher.

While the ranking includes some smaller, lesser-known colleges where selectivity is driven by small class sizes and tightly curated curricula, some schools with applicant pools or total student populations of under 100 were excluded from the list as their acceptance rates are not entirely comparable to those of more traditional four-year colleges and universities.

See the hardest schools to get into in America.

35. Stanbridge University

Location: Irvine, California

Acceptance rate: 10%

Student population: 2,928

Student-to-faculty ratio: 15 to 1

34. Claremont McKenna College

Claremont, CA - August 13 2022: Fountain in front of an academic building at Claremont McKenna College

Location: Claremont, California

Acceptance rate: 10%

Student population: 1,393

Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1

33. University of Southern California

Los Angeles, California US - April 16, 2024: campus of The University of Southern California USC, a private research university in Los Angeles, on a sunny day

Location: Los Angeles

Acceptance rate: 10%

Student population: 46,566

Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1

32. The Juilliard School

Location: New York City

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 1,073

Student-to-faculty ratio: 4 to 1

31. Barnard College

NEW YORK, NY -21 MAR 2022- View of campus of Barnard College of Columbia University, a private womens liberal arts college in Manhattan, New York City.

Location: New York City

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 3,487

Student-to-faculty ratio: 10 to 1

30. Amherst College

Amherst College Johnson Chapel tower on a sunny day.

Location: Amherst, Massachusetts

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 1,914

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

29. United States Naval Academy

Annapolis, Maryland, USA town skyline at Chesapeake Bay with the United States Naval Academy Chapel dome.

Location: Annapolis, Maryland

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 4,474

Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1

28. Cornell University

Ithaca New York - June 26, 2021: The Uris Library and McGraw Tower on campus of Cornell University. Cornell University is a private, statutory, Ivy League and land-grant research university in Ithaca

Location: Ithaca, New York

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 26,793

Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1

27. New York University

NEW YORK CITY - SEPTEMBER 13, 2013: Street view of New York University NYU in Greenwich Village Manhattan.

Location: New York City

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 56,832

Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1

26. University of California—Los Angeles

Los Angeles, CA: January 13, 2017: A view of Royce Hall on the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) campus. Royce Hall was completed in 1929.

Location: Los Angeles

Acceptance rate: 9%

Student population: 47,335

Student-to-faculty ratio: 20 to 1

25. Williams College

Williamstown, MA. USA - October 8, 2021: Aerial view of the Thompson Memorial Chapel on the campus of Williams College in Williamstown, MA.

Location: Williamstown, Massachusetts

Acceptance rate: 8%

Student population: 2,164

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

24. Rice University

Houston, Texas — December 20, 2016: Rice University Private research university building architecture.

Location: Houston

Acceptance rate: 8%

Student population: 8,961

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

23. Northwestern University

Evanston, IL, USA - September 18, 2025: Northwestern Medicine Field at Northwestern University is the schools soccer, lacrosse, and temporary football field while Ryan Field is built.

Location: Evanston, Illinois

Acceptance rate: 8%

Student population: 23,856

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

22. Washington University of Science and Technology

The skyline of Alexandria, Virginia, USA and surrounding areas as seen from the top of the George Washington Masonic Temple.

Location: Alexandria, Virginia

Acceptance rate: 7%

Student population: 1,096

Student-to-faculty ratio: 14 to 1

21. Pomona College

Claremont, California USA - March 30, 2017: The historic Carnegie Library at Pomona College houses Social Science offices and classrooms.

Location: Claremont, California

Acceptance rate: 7%

Student population: 1,700

Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1

20. Swarthmore College

Clothier Memorial Hall on the campus of Swarthmore College near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Location: Swarthmore, Pennsylvania

Acceptance rate: 7%

Student population: 1,623

Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1

19. Bowdoin College

Hubbard Hall building on Bowdoin College campus.

Location: Brunswick, Maine

Acceptance rate: 7%

Student population: 1,881

Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1

18. Colby College

Waterville, Maine, USA - 07 04 2022: campus of Colby College in Maine, USA

Location: Waterville, Maine

Acceptance rate: 7%

Student population: 2,412

Student-to-faculty ratio: 9 to 1

17. Vanderbilt University

Campus of Vanderbilt Unversity in Nashville, Tennessee.

Location: Nashville

Acceptance rate: 6%

Student population: 13,575

Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1

16. Johns Hopkins University

Aerial view of Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Georgian and Federal styles, characterized by red brick, white marble trim, and symmetrical layouts

Location: Baltimore

Acceptance rate: 6%

Student population: 30,210

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

15. Duke University

DURHAM, NC, USA - JUNE 18: William R. Perkins Library and Bostock Library on June 18, 2017 at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.

Location: Durham, North Carolina

Acceptance rate: 6%

Student population: 17,499

Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1

14. Curtis Institute of Music

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA downtown city skyline

Location: Philadelphia

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 161

Student-to-faculty ratio: 2 to 1

13. Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Cambridge, MA - April 27, 2026: Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus center, Rogers Building, with mathematical sculpture by Jaume Plensa

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 11,886

Student-to-faculty ratio: 3 to 1

12. Dartmouth College

The Baker-Berry Library on the campus of Dartmouth College. Dartmouth College is a private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire

Location: Hanover, New Hampshire

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 6,938

Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1

11. Princeton University

Princeton, NJ, USA - June 30, 2020: Ivy-covered East Pyne Hall at Princeton University.

Location: Princeton, New Jersey

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 9,137

Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1

10. Brown University

PROVIDENCE, RI/USA - SEPTEMBER 30, 2019: Unidentfied individuals, and Sayles Hall on the campus of Brown University.

Location: Providence, Rhode Island

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 11,956

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

9. University of Pennsylvania

Very old building in the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Location: Philadelphia

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 29,109

Student-to-faculty ratio: 8 to 1

8. Northeastern University

BOSTON, MA - JUN 16: Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, as seen on Jun 16, 2018. It is a private research university established in 1898.

Location: Boston

Acceptance rate: 5%

Student population: 32,553

Student-to-faculty ratio: 16 to 1

7. University of Chicago

Chicago, USA - August 2022: An ivy covered gothic style building typical of the architecture of the older section of the University of Chicago on its main quadrangles.

Location: Chicago

Acceptance rate: 4%

Student population: 18,566

Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1

6. Harvard University

Three huge "Veritas" Banners hang from the facade of Widener Memorial Library at Harvard University.

Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Acceptance rate: 4%

Student population: 30,259

Student-to-faculty ratio: 7 to 1

5. Stanford University

People walk on the campus of Stanford University.

Location: Stanford, California

Acceptance rate: 4%

Student population: 18,625

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

4. Yale University

Location: New Haven, Connecticut

Acceptance rate: 4%

Student population: 15,564

Student-to-faculty ratio: 5 to 1

3. Columbia University

Students on the Columbia University campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, New York

Location: New York City

Acceptance rate: 4%

Student population: 35,173

Student-to-faculty ratio: 6 to 1

2. Minerva University

San Francisco, California, USA city skyline.

Location: San Francisco

Acceptance rate: 3%

Student population: 669

Student-to-faculty ratio: 14 to 1

1. California Institute of Technology

Pasadena, California, United States - 01-31-2020: A view of the fountain in front of the Beckman Institute building at California Institute of Technology.

Location: Pasadena, California

Acceptance rate: 3%

Student population: 2,430

Student-to-faculty ratio: 3 to 1

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The 35 hardest colleges to get into in America

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