The 20 best colleges in America that accept the fewest students
With over 20 million students expected to attend college in 2016, it’s no wonder admittance to some of the nation’s top schools is getting even more difficult.
Business Insider recently published its list of the 50 best colleges in America. Our methodology didn’t give significant weight to selectivity — we instead focused more on graduation rates, early-career earnings, and quality student life experience — but a number of highly selective schools made it on the list.
To determine the toughest schools to get into, Business Insider sorted the colleges on our top 50 list by their acceptance rates — gathered from the US government’s College Scorecard — using their overall rank as a tie-breaker.
Read on to find out the 20 top colleges that are the hardest to get into.
20. Bowdoin College
Location: Brunswick, Maine
Acceptance rate: 15%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling:$54,800
Average SAT score: 1423
Student life score: A+
At Bowdoin College, the second-ranked liberal-arts school on our list, first-year students can choose from 35 first-year seminars and are required to take a course in each of five general subject areas. As for postgraduation, Bowdoin’s 1,500-member alumni Career Advisory Network helps prepare students for their future careers.
19. Rice University
Location: Houston
Acceptance rate: 15%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $59,900
Average SAT score: 1454
Student life score: A+
Rice University is home to pioneering applied sciences programs, including nationally recognized nanotechnology and biomedical engineering departments. The only Texas college on our list was founded in 1912 and is the youngest of the 10 best colleges.
18. Amherst College
Location: Brunswick, Maine
Acceptance rate: 14%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling:$54,800
Average SAT score: 1423
Student life score: A+
At Bowdoin College, the second-ranked liberal-arts school on our list, first-year students can choose from 35 first-year seminars and are required to take a course in each of five general subject areas. As for postgraduation, Bowdoin’s 1,500-member alumni Career Advisory Network helps prepare students for their future careers.
17. Cornell University
Location: Ithaca, New York
Acceptance rate: 14%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $70,900
Average SAT score: 1422
Student life score: A+
The Ivy League school located in upstate New York was the first to establish a four-year hotel-administration school, and it was the first university in the US to offer an American studies program. Big Red, as it is nicknamed, offers nearly 80 majors including engineering, architecture, and agricultural sciences. Its College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is the second-largest undergraduate college at the university.
16. Northwestern University
Location: Evanston, Illinois
Acceptance rate: 13%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $64,100
Average SAT score: 1458
Student life score: A
With more than 500 clubs and organizationsto join, including a capella groups and the student-run newspaper, there’s no shortage of ways for Northwestern students to get involved on campus. On the academic side, Northwestern sponsors several opportunities for innovation, including two startup incubators and a certificate program in entrepreneurship specifically targeted at undergraduates.
15. Vanderbilt University
Location: Nashville, Tennessee
Acceptance rate: 13%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $60,900
Average SAT score: 1475
Student life score: A+
American business and railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt established his namesake university in 1873. Since then, Vanderbilt’s high-ranking undergraduate program has produced hundreds of notable alumni, including two NASA astronauts, best-selling novelist James Patterson, and Ann Moore, the first female CEO of Time Inc.
14. Pomona College
Location: Pomona, California
Acceptance rate: 12%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $52,600
Average SAT score: 1454
Student life score: A+
The founding member of the Claremont Colleges — a consortium of five undergraduate colleges and two graduate schools — Pomona College is a liberal-arts school offering close to 50 majors in arts, humanities, and sciences. The selective private school is one of the most affordable on our list, with an annual net cost (the cost of tuition minus the average financial aid award) of $12,557.
13. Dartmouth College
Location: Hanover, New Hampshire
Acceptance rate: 12%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $67,100
Average SAT score: 1446
Student life score: A-
Dartmouth encourages students to pursue a globally focused education, and the school’s flexible calendar — made up of four 10-week terms — lets students decide which seasons to spend on campus and which to take off to travel, volunteer, complete an internship, or conduct research. The Office of Undergraduate Research connects students with faculty mentors, helping any undergraduate interested in research find a project to pursue.
12. Claremont McKenna College
Location: Claremont, California
Acceptance rate: 11%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $63,600
Average SAT score: 1397
Student life grade: A
Just an hour away from Los Angeles, Claremont McKenna College belongs to the Claremont College Consortium, which allows students to attend small, close-knit classes while also having the option to take courses across seven colleges. CMC offers more than 30 majors and 10 sequences — a group of courses on a subject but not a full major. Its graduates go on to graduate school at top-tier universities such as Columbia, Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Yale.
11. Duke University
Location: Durham, North Carolina
Acceptance rate: 11%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $76,700
Average SAT score: 1444
Student life score: A+
Duke University places an emphasis on research, providing students with numerous avenues to pursue projects through research grants, travel opportunities, and apprenticeships with distinguished professors — and more than half of its undergraduates take advantage. Upon graduation, Duke students join the ranks of notable alumni such as Melinda Gates, Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson, and former “Nightline” anchor Dan Abrams.
10. University of Pennsylvania
Location: Philadelphia
Acceptance rate: 10%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $78,200
Average SAT score: 1442
Student life score: A+
Founded in 1740, the University of Pennsylvania stands as one of the most selective schools in the US, accepting just 10.2% of applicants. During their time at UPenn, students can take advantage of the school’s vast resources, including 6.38 million books, 1.16 million e-books, and 136 research centers and institutes, which are accompanied by an annual research budget of $878 million to boot.
9. California Institute of Technology
Location: Pasadena, California
Acceptance rate: 9%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $74,000
Average SAT score: 1534
Student life score: B+
One of the most respected science and engineering schools in the world, Caltech manages NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a federally funded space research facility that led the successful mission to land the Curiosity rover on Mars in 2012. But the intimate, 1,000-student private school is accomplished in more than just science. As a certified olive-oil distributor, Caltech harvests on-campus olive trees to produce up to 150 gallons of oil annually.
8. University of Chicago
Location: Chicago
Acceptance rate: 9%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $62,800
Average SAT score: 1504
Student life score: A
Since oil magnate John D. Rockefeller founded the University of Chicago in 1890, the private school has established a global presence with international centers in Beijing, New Delhi, Paris, and Hong Kong. UChicago’s undergraduate program is recognized for preparing students to continue on to graduate school, with more than 15% of undergraduates eventually earning a Ph.D.
7. Brown University
Location: Providence, Rhode Island
Acceptance rate: 9%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $59,700
Average SAT score: 1425
Student life score: A+
Brown students have the freedom to personalize their liberal-arts course study, a practice the school calls “open curriculum.” Brown was founded in 1764 on the then-unprecedented idea of accepting students regardless of religion. It was also the first Ivy League school to establish an undergraduate engineering program in 1847.
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 8%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling:$91,600
Average SAT score: 1503
Student life score: A+
The country’s most renowned engineering school, MIT sees 22% of undergraduates go on to pursue jobs in the field. Graduates secure positions at tech powerhouses such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Oracle. Even more impressive, the MIT community includes 85 Nobel laureates, 58 National Medal of Science winners, and 29 National Medal of Technology and Innovation winners.
5. Columbia University
Location: New York City
Acceptance rate: 7%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $72,900
Average SAT score: 1471
Student life score: A+
The oldest university in the state, Columbia called several locations across New York City home after its founding in 1754 — including a schoolhouse adjacent to Trinity Church in the financial district and a 40-year occupation in Midtown — before settling into its iconic campus on 116th Street. Students who wish to continue their education past their undergraduate years can look to Columbia’s renowned graduate programs in business, law, and journalism.
4. Princeton University
Location: Princeton, New Jersey
Acceptance rate: 7%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $75,100
Average SAT score: 1495
Student life score: A+
Princeton has trained a barrage of successful graduates, including 15 Nobel Prize winners, 10 National Humanities Medal winners, and 21 National Medal of Science winners. The prestigious Ivy League institution also counts President John F. Kennedy, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, and author F. Scott Fitzgerald among its many distinguished alumni.
3. Yale University
Location: New Haven, Connecticut
Acceptance rate: 6%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $66,000
Average SAT score: 1497
Student life score: A+
The second-oldest Ivy League school, Yale aims to provide students with a strong liberal-arts education. Its undergraduate college puts an emphasis on four areas — arts, sciences, international studies, and writing — and offers more than 70 majors, including astronomy, theater studies, and economics. It’s also one of the hardest schools to get into, with an acceptance rate of just 6%.
2. Harvard University
Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts
Acceptance rate: 6%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $87,200
Average SAT score: 1501
Student life score: A+
Synonymous with prestige since its founding 380 years ago, Harvard University remains one of the most respected schools in the world — and a degree from the college reflects that. Though Harvard’s annual tuition (including fees and room and board) is a steep $60,659, nearly 70% of students receive some type of financial aid — thanks to the school’s $37.6 billion endowment — trimming the average student’s annual net cost to just over $14,000.
1. Stanford University
Location: Stanford, California
Acceptance rate: 5%
Median salary 10 years after enrolling: $80,900
Average SAT score: 1466
Student life score: A+
Known for the proliferation of technology companies spurred from students’ time on campus, Stanford boasts top-notch computer science and engineering programs, with specialties offered in areas like atmosphere and energy as well as biomedical computation. The school’s four-to-one ratio of students to teachers ensures that every student interacts closely with professors and receives personal attention.
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