25 hardest colleges to get into in America
Since the Common App debuted in 1998, applying to multiple schools at once has been easier than ever. It's also made some colleges even harder to get into.
Stacker used the most recent data from the National Center for Education Statistics to rank the 25 hardest colleges to get into across the U.S. Schools are ranked by 2022 acceptance rates and supplementary test score data is included where available. Ranked colleges are limited to those with at least 500 undergraduate students. Online colleges aren't included.
Before the internet, high school students usually applied to a small selection of colleges and submitted individual forms in the mail. But the Common App, now used by more than 1,000 colleges, features a single application that serves as a platform for standardized essay prompts and the submission of transcripts and test scores. Individual schools may decide to add additional components, such as short response questions; but in general, high school students save time not having to fill out multiple applications.
These days, college enrollment is on the rise across the U.S. Nearly 18 million students registered for the spring 2024 semester, a 2.5% increase from a year prior. And a September 2024 analysis from the American Enterprise Institute revealed that admission rates at many universities have gone up substantially in recent years, bucking a decades-long trend of highly competitive rates. But after the Supreme Court reversed affirmative action in 2023, people of color have enrolled at much lower rates. Harvard University reported 4% fewer Black freshman students compared to the year before, while Yale University saw Asian American enrollment decline by 6% in the same period.
These numbers have understandably raised concerns about the future of college admissions. But aside from unchangeable factors such as race, what makes an applicant competitive to the most selective schools in the country? Traditionally, a strong GPA and standardized test score lay the foundation for other considerations, including essay strength, extracurricular participation, and interview success. But for some of America's top universities, those factors are only the start.
Keep reading to discover the most selective colleges in the U.S.
