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Most selective (lowest admit rate)
1,392 colleges in the U.S. with this figure reported (500+ students).
1California Institute of Technology · CA · Private (nonprofit)3% admit2Harvard University · MA · Private (nonprofit)3% admit3Minerva University · CA · Private (nonprofit)4% admit4Circle in the Square Theatre School · NY · Private (nonprofit)4% admit5Stanford University · CA · Private (nonprofit)4% admit6Columbia University in the City of New York · NY · Private (nonprofit)4% admit7Princeton University · NJ · Private (nonprofit)5% admit8Yale University · CT · Private (nonprofit)5% admit9Massachusetts Institute of Technology · MA · Private (nonprofit)5% admit10University of Chicago · IL · Private (nonprofit)5% admit11Brown University · RI · Private (nonprofit)5% admit12Northeastern University · MA · Private (nonprofit)6% admit13University of Pennsylvania · PA · Private (nonprofit)6% admit14Dartmouth College · NH · Private (nonprofit)6% admit15Vanderbilt University · TN · Private (nonprofit)6% admit16Pomona College · CA · Private (nonprofit)7% admit17Duke University · NC · Private (nonprofit)7% admit18Colby College · ME · Private (nonprofit)7% admit19Swarthmore College · PA · Private (nonprofit)7% admit20Northwestern University · IL · Private (nonprofit)7% admit21Johns Hopkins University · MD · Private (nonprofit)8% admit22Rice University · TX · Private (nonprofit)8% admit23Barnard College · NY · Private (nonprofit)8% admit24Bowdoin College · ME · Private (nonprofit)8% admit25Cornell University · NY · Private (nonprofit)8% admit26University of California-Los Angeles · CA · Public9% admit27The Juilliard School · NY · Private (nonprofit)9% admit28United States Naval Academy · MD · Public9% admit29New York University · NY · Private (nonprofit)9% admit30Amherst College · MA · Private (nonprofit)10% admit31Williams College · MA · Private (nonprofit)10% admit32University of Southern California · CA · Private (nonprofit)10% admit33Tufts University · MA · Private (nonprofit)10% admit34Middlebury College · VT · Private (nonprofit)10% admit35Boston University · MA · Private (nonprofit)11% admit36Emory University · GA · Private (nonprofit)11% admit37Claremont McKenna College · CA · Private (nonprofit)11% admit38Stanbridge University · CA · Private (for-profit)11% admit39Carnegie Mellon University · PA · Private (nonprofit)11% admit40University of California-Berkeley · CA · Public12% admit
Source: U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS (latest survey year). Sorted only by most selective (lowest admit rate) — this is not an overall quality ranking. Open-admission colleges do not report an admit rate and are not listed here.