America’s 26 Hardest Top-Ranked Universities To Get Into, US News Rankings 2018

A new low among most prestigious institutions in America, Harvard and Stanford accepted only 5% of students in the latest admissions season.

To determine the “20 hardest top-ranked universities to get into,” we examined institutions in the U.S. News National Universities ranking 2018 – with the “Lowest Acceptance Rates” and narrowed our criteria to only include colleges in the top 100 of the 311 ranked with acceptance rate less than 25%.

These are some of the hardest universities to get into. Leading the list is Harvard University which sent acceptance letters to only 5% of applicants who applied and rejected 95%.

Explore the 20 hardest top-ranked universities to get into based on acceptance rates:

1. Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
   National rank: #2
   Acceptance rate: 5%
2. Stanford University, CA
   National rank: #5 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 5%
3. Columbia University. New York, NY
   National rank: #5 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 6%
4. Yale University, New Haven, CT
   National rank: #3 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 6%
5. Princeton University, NJ
   National rank: #1
   Acceptance rate: 7%
6. California Institute of Technology
   National rank: #10
   Acceptance rate: 8%
7. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA
   National rank: #5 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 8%
8. University of Chicago, IL
   National rank: #3 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 8%
9. Brown University, Providence, RI
   National rank: #14 (tie)
   Acceptance rate: 9%
10. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA
    National rank: #8
    Acceptance rate: 9%
11. Dartmouth College
    National rank: #11
    Acceptance rate: 11%
12. Duke University
    National rank: #9
    Acceptance rate: 11%
13. Northwestern University
    National rank: #11 (tie)
    Acceptance rate: 11%
14. Vanderbilt University
    National rank: #14 (tie)
    Acceptance rate: 11%
15. Johns Hopkins University
    National rank: #11 (tie)
    Acceptance rate: 12%
16. Cornell University
    National rank: #14 (tie)
    Acceptance rate: 14%
17. Tufts University
    National rank: #29
    Acceptance rate: 14%
18. Rice University
    National rank: #14
    Acceptance rate: 15%
19. University of California–Berkeley
    National rank: #21
    Acceptance rate: 16%
20. Georgetown University
    National rank: #20
    Acceptance rate: 17%
21. University of Southern California
    National rank: #21
    Acceptance rate: 17%
22. Washington University in St. Louis
    National rank: #18
    Acceptance rate: 17%
23. University of California–Los Angeles
    National rank: #21
    Acceptance rate: 18%
24. University of Notre Dame
    National rank: #18
    Acceptance rate: 19%
25. Carnegie Mellon University
    National rank: #25
    Acceptance rate: 22%
26. Emory University
    National rank: #21
    Acceptance rate: 25%

All of these 26 highest-ranked universities have acceptance rate less than 25 percent.

The U.S. News rankings take 15 measures into account. From academic reputation; to graduation and retention rates; to selectivity and financial help, the publication tries to capture a school’s worthiness in a single number.

Of course, there are many other ways to rank colleges and universities. The CEOWORLD magazine, the world’s leading business magazine, has also released its annual ranking of best hospitality and hotel management schools in the world for 2017, best fashion schools in the world for 2017, and best business schools in the world for 2017.