ocity

Most Selective Colleges

The hardest universities to get accepted into

50 institutions listed Source family: U.S. Department of Education stored fields
#1
California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA · Private
B+
#2
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA · Private
B+
#3
Minerva University
San Francisco, CA · Private
C+
#4
Stanford University
Stanford, CA · Private
B+
#5
Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY · Private
B+
#6
Yale University
New Haven, CT · Private
B
#7
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Cambridge, MA · Private
B+
#8
University of Chicago
Chicago, IL · Private
B+
#9
Brown University
Providence, RI · Private
B
#10
Northeastern University
Boston, MA · Private
B
#11
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA · Private
B
#12
Vanderbilt University
Nashville-Davidson, TN · Private
B+
#13
Duke University
Durham, NC · Private
B
#14
Curtis Institute of Music
Philadelphia, PA · Private
B
#15
Northwestern University
Evanston, IL · Private
B
#16
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD · Private
B+
#17
Rice University
Houston, TX · Private
B+
#18
Barnard College
New York, NY · Private
B
#19
University of California-Los Angeles
Los Angeles, CA · Public
B+
#20
The Juilliard School
New York, NY · Private
B-
#21
New York University
New York, NY · Private
B
#22
Pacific Oaks College
Pasadena, CA · Private
C
#23
University of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA · Private
B
#24
Middlebury College
Middlebury CDP, VT · Private
B
#25
Boston University
Boston, MA · Private
B
#26
Emory University
Atlanta, GA · Private
B
#27
Carnegie Mellon University
Pittsburgh, PA · Private
B
#28
Washington University of Science and Technology
Alexandria, VA · Private
C+
#29
University of California-Berkeley
Berkeley, CA · Public
B+
#30
Washington University in St Louis
St. Louis, MO · Private
B
#31
Bates College
Lewiston, ME · Private
B-
#32
Georgetown University
Washington, DC · Private
B-
#33
Rhode Island School of Design
Providence, RI · Private
B-
#34
Tulane University of Louisiana
New Orleans, LA · Private
B-
#35
Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
Atlanta, GA · Public
B+
#36
Northeastern University Oakland
Oakland, CA · Private
C
#37
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Location not reported, NC · Public
B-
#38
University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
Ann Arbor, MI · Public
B+
#39
The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art
New York, NY · Private
B
#40
Colorado College
Colorado Springs, CO · Private
B-
#41
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, MA · Private
C+
#42
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University
Tallahassee, FL · Public
C
#43
Wake Forest University
Winston-Salem, NC · Private
B-
#44
University of Richmond
Richmond, VA · Private
B-
#45
University of Florida
Gainesville, FL · Public
B+
#46
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL · Public
B-
#47
University of California-Irvine
Irvine, CA · Public
B+
#48
Reed College
Portland, OR · Private
C+
#49
University of California-Santa Barbara
Santa Barbara, CA · Public
B+
#50
Trinity University
San Antonio, TX · Private
B-

Methodology and source limits

Institutions are ordered by the stored field or rule described for Most Selective Colleges. Source periods can vary by field and institution. Missing values are not proof of zero, and these lists are not universal judgments of educational quality.