What College has the Lowest Acceptance Rate?
Would you like to know which American college has the lowest admission rate? If that’s the case, this article contains a few top-ranked colleges you should keep in mind

While some colleges and universities accept almost anyone who applies, these schools take pride in being extremely selective.
These are some of the most difficult colleges to get into.
Colleges with the Lowest Acceptance Rate
Here are the top colleges and universities with the lowest acceptance rates in the United States. Kindly study them carefully before identifying the ones you would love to apply for:
School | Location | 2022 Acceptance Rate |
Curtis Institute of Music | Philadelphia, PA | 4% |
Harvard University | Cambridge, MA | 5% |
Stanford University | Stanford, CA | 5% |
Columbia University | New York, NY | 6% |
Princeton University | Princeton, NJ | 6% |
Alice Lloyd College | Pippa Passes, KY | 7% |
California Institute of Technology | Pasadena, CA | 7% |
Juilliard School | New York, NY | 7% |
Massachusetts Institute of Technology | Cambridge, MA | 7% |
University of Chicago | Chicago, IL | 7% |
Yale University | New Haven, CT | 7% |
Brown University | Providence, RI | 8% |
Duke University | Durham, NC | 8% |
Bowdoin College | Brunswick, ME | 9% |
Dartmouth College | Hanover, NH | 9% |
Johns Hopkins University | Baltimore, MD | 9% |
Northwestern University | Evanston, IL | 9% |
Pomona College | Claremont, CA | 9% |
Swarthmore College | Swarthmore, PA | 9% |
United States Military Academy | West Point, NY | 9% |
United States Naval Academy | Annapolis, MD | 9% |
University of Pennsylvania | Philadelphia, PA | 9% |
Colby College | Waterville, ME | 10% |
Cornell University | Ithaca, NY | 11% |
Rice University | Houston, TX | 11% |
Tulane University | New Orleans, LA | 11% |
Amherst College | Amherst, MA | 12% |
Vanderbilt University | Nashville, TN | 12% |
Chicago School of Professional Psychology at Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA | 13% |
Claremont McKenna College | Claremont, CA | 13% |
United States Air Force Academy | USAF Academy, CO | 13% |
United States Coast Guard Academy | New London, CT | 13% |
University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma | Chickasha, OK | 13% |
Barnard College | New York, NY | 14% |
Bates College | Lewiston, ME | 14% |
College of the Ozarks | Point Lookout, MO | 14% |
Colorado College | Colorado Springs, CO | 14% |
University of California–Los Angeles | Los Angeles, CA | 14% |
Wiley College | Marshall, TX | 15% |
Williams College | Williamstown, MA | 15% |
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering | Needham, MA | 16% |
Tufts University | Medford, MA | 16% |
United States Merchant Marine Academy | Kings Point, NY | 16% |
University of Southern California | Los Angeles, CA | 16% |
Washington University in St. Louis | St. Louis, MO | 16% |
Carnegie Mellon University | Pittsburgh, PA | 17% |
Georgetown University | Washington, DC | 17% |
Pitzer College | Claremont, CA | 17% |
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art | New York, NY | 18% |
Hamilton College | Clinton, NY | 18% |
Harvey Mudd College | Claremont, CA | 18% |
Haverford College | Haverford, PA | 18% |
University of California–Berkeley | Berkeley, CA | 18% |
Emory University | Atlanta, GA | 19% |
Grinnell College | Grinnell, IA | 19% |
Texas Wesleyan University | Fort Worth, TX | 19% |
University of Notre Dame | Notre Dame, IN | 19% |
Boston University | Boston, MA | 20% |
Davidson College | Davidson, NC | 20% |
Northeastern University | Boston, MA | 20% |
The list is based on data from a variety of sources, including U.S. News & World Report and Niche.com rankings, and it includes both public and private schools.
However, we have believed the above piece of information on “what college has the lowest acceptance rate” was useful.
CSN Team.