10 Colleges and Universities With the Most Competitive Admissions Rates
The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
If it feels harder to get into college these days, that's because it is.
Over the past decade, college admissions rates have slowly become more competitive, according to the National Association for College Admission Counseling's State of College Admission report. Acceptance rates declined by nearly six percentage points during that time period, according to the organization's figures.
But the good news is that many colleges still admit the majority of applicants. The average acceptance rate for fall 2014 was 64.7 percent among the 1,257 ranked colleges and universities reporting data to U.S. News in an annual survey.
[Explore 10 colleges that receive the most applications.]
These 10 institutions listed below, however, only accepted a tiny percentage of applicants and reported the lowest acceptance rates for the fall 2014 entering class.
The college with the lowest rate of admission was Stanford University, which sent acceptance letters to just 5.1 percent of applicants for fall 2014. Harvard followed with a 6 percent rate while Yale University admitted just 6.3 percent of applicants.
[Discover what makes a strong college essay.]
On the flip side, seven ranked institutions reported admitting 100 percent of applicants in fall 2014. Those include Saint-Mary-of-the-Woods College, ranked No. 21 among Regional Colleges (Midwest) and Wayne State College, tied at No. 75 among Regional Universities (Midwest).
Here are the 10 colleges and universities with the lowest acceptance rates based on the fall 2014 entering class. Unranked colleges, which did not submit enough data for U.S. News to calculate a ranking, were not considered for this report.
School name (state) | Fall 2014 acceptance rate | U.S. News rank and category |
|---|---|---|
5.1% | 4 (tie), National Universities | |
6% | 2, National Universities | |
6.3% | 3, National Universities | |
7% | 4 (tie), National Universities | |
7.1% | 30 (tie), Regional Colleges (South) | |
7.4% | 1, National Universities | |
7.9% | 7, National Universities | |
7.9% | 9 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges | |
8.3% | 4, Regional Colleges (Midwest) | |
8.7% | 14, National Universities |
Don't see your school on the list? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find acceptance rates, complete rankings and much more. School officials can access historical data and rankings, including of peer institutions, via U.S. News Academic Insights.
U.S. News surveyed nearly 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2015 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News' data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News' rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The acceptance rate data above are correct as of Nov. 3, 2015.
Susannah Snider is an education reporter at U.S. News, covering paying for college and graduate school. You can follow her on Twitter or email her at ssnider@usnews.com.
