PlainCollege

National ranking · College Scorecard 2026

Top 100 Most Selective Colleges

According to the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard, updated September 2024, these rank as the hardest of 6,197 US colleges to get into by acceptance rate - reported institutional admissions figures matched to average SAT score data from the federal IPEDS survey, across all 50 states.

3.6%
Lowest acceptance rate
100
Colleges ranked
1,553
#1 average SAT

The list in one line

Every one of the 100 most selective US colleges admits no more than 33.7% of applicants. Stanford University is the hardest to get into, admitting just 3.6%.

3.6%
#1 hardest - Stanford University
33.7%
#100 - the cutoff to make this list
1,553
#1 — average SAT score
100
colleges ranked, all 50 states

Ranked by reported admission rate (lowest first); only schools reporting a rate above 0% are included. See the methodology for year and cohort details.

Acceptance rate at the 15 most selective colleges

Lower is harder to get into · live data from the portal database

% accepted
Source U.S. Department of Education As of 2024
Rank School Name State Acceptance Rate SAT Avg
1 Stanford University CA 3.6% 1,553
2 Harvard University MA 3.6% 1,553
3 Yale University CT 3.9% 1,534
4 Columbia University in the City of New York NY 4.0% 1,553
5 University of Chicago IL 4.5% 1,554
6 Massachusetts Institute of Technology MA 4.5% 1,560
7 Princeton University NJ 4.6% 1,553
8 Northeastern University MA 5.2% 1,497
9 Brown University RI 5.4% 1,546
10 Dartmouth College NH 5.4% 1,534
11 University of Pennsylvania PA 5.4% 1,553
12 Duke University NC 5.7% 1,548
13 Vanderbilt University TN 5.9% 1,549
14 Johns Hopkins University MD 6.4% 1,553
15 Pomona College CA 7.1% 1,534
16 Colby College ME 7.1% 1,501
17 Bowdoin College ME 7.1% 1,520
18 Swarthmore College PA 7.5% 1,534
19 Northwestern University IL 7.7% 1,533
20 Rice University TX 8.0% 1,553
21 Williams College MA 8.3% 1,533
22 Cornell University NY 8.8% 1,535
23 Barnard College NY 8.8% 1,520
24 University of California-Los Angeles CA 9.0% —
25 Amherst College MA 9.0% 1,533
26 New York University NY 9.2% 1,520
27 United States Naval Academy MD 9.3% 1,307
28 Claremont McKenna College CA 9.6% 1,527
29 University of Southern California CA 9.8% 1,495
30 Stanbridge University CA 10.0% —
31 Emory University GA 10.7% 1,520
32 Middlebury College VT 10.8% 1,508
33 University of California-Berkeley CA 11.0% —
34 Boston University MA 11.1% 1,480
35 University of Notre Dame IN 11.3% 1,520
36 Tufts University MA 11.5% 1,513
37 Carnegie Mellon University PA 11.7% 1,546
38 College of the Ozarks MO 12.0% 1,118
39 Washington University in St Louis MO 12.1% 1,530
40 Haverford College PA 12.4% 1,513
41 United States Military Academy NY 12.4% 1,355
42 Georgetown University DC 12.9% 1,487
43 Bates College ME 13.3% 1,468
44 Davidson College NC 13.4% 1,469
45 Hamilton College NY 13.6% 1,506
46 Colgate University NY 13.9% 1,508
47 Washington and Lee University VA 14.0% 1,498
48 Tulane University of Louisiana LA 14.0% 1,448
49 Wellesley College MA 14.1% 1,520
50 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus GA 14.1% 1,480
51 United States Air Force Academy CO 14.1% 1,350
52 Grinnell College IA 14.5% 1,486
53 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill NC 15.3% 1,439
54 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor MI 15.6% 1,465
55 Boston College MA 16.4% 1,507
56 Wesleyan University CT 16.5% 1,501
57 University of Virginia-Main Campus VA 16.8% 1,480
58 Babson College MA 17.1% 1,457
59 Denison University OH 17.4% 1,410
60 College of the Holy Cross MA 17.6% 1,353
61 Colorado College CO 18.5% 1,365
62 Vassar College NY 18.6% 1,494
63 Rhode Island School of Design RI 18.7% 1,473
64 University of Miami FL 18.9% 1,415
65 Berea College KY 19.3% 1,249
66 Carleton College MN 20.4% 1,517
67 Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University FL 20.6% 1,107
68 Hillsdale College MI 20.7% 1,415
69 Smith College MA 21.0% 1,500
70 Skidmore College NY 21.1% 1,405
71 Wake Forest University NC 21.7% 1,475
72 University of Richmond VA 22.2% 1,497
73 United States Coast Guard Academy CT 22.4% 1,339
74 Citadel Military College of South Carolina SC 22.7% 1,208
75 University of Florida FL 24.2% 1,403
76 Florida State University FL 24.2% 1,361
77 American Musical and Dramatic Academy NY 24.5% —
78 Reed College OR 24.6% 1,437
79 Spelman College GA 24.9% 1,220
80 Pitzer College CA 25.2% —
81 Trinity University TX 25.9% 1,416
82 Lehigh University PA 25.9% 1,440
83 Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Fajardo PR 26.5% —
84 The University of Texas at Austin TX 26.6% 1,395
85 University of California-San Diego CA 26.7% —
86 Villanova University PA 27.0% 1,460
87 Franklin and Marshall College PA 28.2% 1,392
88 Macalester College MN 28.5% 1,440
89 University of Virginia's College at Wise VA 28.5% 1,050
90 University of California-Irvine CA 28.6% —
91 Bucknell University PA 28.9% 1,410
92 Mississippi College MS 29.1% 1,090
93 Trinity College CT 29.3% 1,415
94 Bryn Mawr College PA 29.4% 1,396
95 Kenyon College OH 31.0% 1,429
96 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo CA 31.3% —
97 Lafayette College PA 31.4% 1,424
98 University of California-Santa Barbara CA 33.0% —
99 Fairfield University CT 33.3% 1,335
100 Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Ponce PR 33.7% —

About This Ranking

Schools are ranked by admission rate (lowest first). Only schools that report admission rates greater than 0% are included. SAT averages are shown where available. All data comes from the U.S. Department of Education College Scorecard. See our methodology for how admission rates and SAT figures are sourced from the federal IPEDS survey.