What are the toughest colleges to get into in the United States. Unsurprisingly, Harvard lives up to its reputation with an acceptance rate of just 5.2% and an SAT range of 1430 – 1600. The site Niche.com did an analysis based on 2017 acceptance rates and SAT and ACT scores reported to the US Department of Education. College acceptance rates received a weighted average of 60% in the ranking computation, and SAT/ACT scores received a weighted average of 40%. Niche rounds acceptance rates to the nearest whole percentage.
Acceptance rates are listed below, along with the mid 50% SAT scores, which indicate the range in which 50% of students score.
Take a look at the top 20 hardest colleges to get into in the US:
20. Claremont McKenna College (Claremont, California)
Acceptance rate: 9%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1320-1490
19. Swarthmore College (Swarthmore, Pennsylvania)
Acceptance rate: 13%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1305-1530
18. Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore, Maryland)
Acceptance rate: 13%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1400-15670
17. Rice University (Houston, Texas)
Acceptance rate: 15%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1410-1570
16. Northwestern University (Evanston, Illinois)
Acceptance rate: 11%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1400-1560
15. Pomona College (Claremont, California)
Acceptance rate: 9%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1340-1540
14. Harvey Mudd College (Claremont, California)
Acceptance rate: 13%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1420-1580
13. Dartmouth College (Hanover, New Hampshire)
Acceptance rate: 11%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1350-1560
12. Duke University (Durham, North Carolina)
Acceptance rate: 11%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1380-1570
11. University of Pennsylvania (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)
Acceptance rate: 9%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1380-1570
10. Brown University (Providence, Rhode Island)
Acceptance rate: 9%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1370-1570
9. Vanderbilt University (Nashville, Tennessee)
Acceptance rate: 11%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1420-1590
8. Columbia University (New York, New York)
Acceptance rate: 7%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1410-1590
7. University of Chicago (Chicago, Illinois)
Acceptance rate: 8%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1450-1600
6. Princeton University (Princeton, New Jersey)
Acceptance rate: 7%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1400-1590
5. California Institute of Technology (Pasadena, California)
Acceptance rate: 8%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1510-1600
4. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Acceptance rate: 8%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1460-1590
3. Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut)
Acceptance rate: 6%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1420-1600
2. Stanford University (Stanford, California)
Acceptance rate: 5%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1380-1580
1. Harvard University (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
Acceptance rate: 5%
Mid 50% SAT scores: 1430-1600