The 20 Most Selective Colleges
Thursday August 14, 2008
Some colleges and universities send out a lot of rejection letters every spring. You can probably guess that Harvard and Stanford are on the list. Some of the other schools may surprise you. This list presents admissions data for the country's 20 most selective colleges. All have acceptance rates below 20%, and a couple are below 10%. You'll find a mix of small colleges and large universities, and the U.S. military academies also prove to be extremely selective.
I've included just those colleges that have an enrollment of over 200 students, and I have not included places with an audition- or portfolio-based application process (although it's worth noting that Julliard is more selective than all members of the Ivy League).
Realize that selectivity alone doesn't explain how difficult a school is to get into. Some of the colleges on the list have high selectivity, but the average test scores and GPAs of the applicants are significantly lower than other schools on the list.
More Top Colleges and Universities:
- Top Women's Colleges
- Top Liberal Arts Colleges
- Top Universities
- Top Public Universities
- Top Engineering Schools
- Top Business Schools
photo by _Gene_ / Flickr
Comments
Allen, do you have any plans to publish the top undergrad Computer Science schools? Or, can you leave a comment with any sources you have. Thanks!
Hi Matt. I do have plans to put up a bunch of major-specific lists, but they probably won’t appear as soon as you’d like. The National Research Council has rankings of graduate computer science programs, but they are painfully out of date and not for undergrad. US News and World Report has rankings for undergraduate computer science, although their methodology is dubious (essentially, they just ask top administrators at a bunch of colleges which programs they think are most distinguished). It’s based on name recognition, not learning outcomes. Often, however, the two go together.
In general, every school on my list of top engineering schools is also strong in computer science. If you want a small college, check out Rose Hulman, Cal Poly and a couple of my favorites–Harvey Mudd and Cooper Union (CU has free tuition!). A few big state schools are also worth looking at–UCLA, UT Austin, U of Washington.
Let me know if you find any good resources out there–it’s a tough job measuring and comparing programs at hundreds of schools across the country!
Isn’t “top colleges” a misnomer – don’t youmean “colleges that reject enough people to get on your list”?
Dr. Andrew Flagel
Dean of Admissions
George Mason University
http://www.notjustadmissions.com
What about US Coast Guard Academy? It’s as or more selective than the other academies and seems to qualify otherwise. Most years it’s around 10%.
Adam–You are right. The Coast Guard Academy accepted just 8% in 2007! I’ll update the list soon.