These Universities Were The Toughest To Get Into In 2019

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Yes, the recent college admissions scandal has put a damper on college admissions — especially at the country’s most elite schools. Regardless, competition remains stiff for entry into the top schools. For entry this past fall, 14 schools had an acceptance rate of less than 10%. Another 14 had acceptance rates in the 10% to 15% range. The most selective school, however, was the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, which only admitted 18 students out of 428 applicants, for an acceptance rate of 4.21%. Up next is Stanford University, which received 43,997 apps and admitted just 2,118 applicants — an acceptance rate of 4.81%. Harvard University had similar numbers, admitting 2,110 out of 39,041 applicants, or 5.4%.

The majority of the most selective schools are composed of a smattering if Ivy League institutions and small, private liberal arts and performing arts schools. The University of California-Berkeley is the most selective large public state school to make the list with an acceptance rate of just under 17% — accepting 13,975 out of a whopping 82,561 applications. Down the coast, the University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA) is the second-most selective major public state school with an acceptance rate of 17.99%. UCLA received more applications than any other school — at 97,112 — and only accepted 17,473.

The Georgia Institute of Technology was the first major public school outside of California to make the list with an acceptance rate of 25.77%. Georgia Tech accepted 7,868 incoming students from an applicant pool of 30,528. Another major Southeastern public school — the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill — followed with an acceptance rate of 26.94%, admitting 9,400 out of 34,889 applicants. The University of Michigan-Ann Arbor was the next most selective public school with an admittance rate of 28.59% — selecting 15,871 applicants out of 55,504.

At the other end of the spectrum, two schools had acceptance rates of greater than 90%. The University of Kentucky had the loosest admissions rates, accepting 18,593 out of 20,480 applicants — a rate of 90.79%. Utah State University followed with an acceptance rate of 90.25% — admitting 13,899 out of 15,401 applicants.