The U.S. News Short List, separate from our overall rankings, is a regular series that magnifies individual data points in hopes of providing students and parents a way to find which undergraduate or graduate programs excel or have room to grow in specific areas. Be sure to explore The Short List: College, The Short List: Grad School and The Short List: Online Programs to find data that matter to you in your college or grad school search.
Getting accepted to college is becoming tougher, and at some schools, the odds are especially slim.
Among the 1,255 ranked colleges that submitted these data to U.S. News in an annual survey, the average acceptance rate was 65 percent for fall 2016. In comparison, the average among the 10 schools with the lowest acceptance rates was just 7 percent.
Eight of the schools on the list are National Universities — institutions that offer a range of undergraduate programs as well as master’s and doctoral degrees. In that category, they all rank within the top 10 in U.S. News’ annual rankings, and four are Ivy League schools.
[Learn what it takes to get accepted to an Ivy League school.]
At the top of the list is Alice Lloyd College in Kentucky, a Regional College, which admitted 4 percent of applicants for fall 2016. Regional Colleges focus on undergraduate education but award fewer than half their degrees in liberal arts disciplines.
The university — which accepted 262 of 6,337 applicants — guarantees tuition to full-time students from a specified service area comprised of 108 counties in Central Appalachia.
[Find more tips about applying to college.]
While some schools are very selective, more than 1,000 ranked colleges accepted at least half of applicants for fall 2016. In fact, 17 of them — including Weber State University in Utah and New Mexico Highlands University — reported that they admitted 100 percent.
Below are the 10 colleges with the lowest acceptance rates for fall 2016. Unranked schools, which did not meet certain criteria required by U.S. News to be numerically ranked, were not considered for this report.
| School name (state) | Fall 2016 acceptance rate | U.S. News rank and category |
| Alice Lloyd College (KY) | 4% | 7, Regional Colleges (South) |
| Harvard University (MA) | 5% | 2, National Universities |
| Stanford University (CA) | 5% | 5 (tie), National Universities |
| Yale University (CT) | 6% | 3 (tie), National Universities |
| Columbia University (NY) | 6% | 5 (tie), National Universities |
| Princeton University (NJ) | 7% | 1, National Universities |
| California Institute of Technology | 8% | 10, National Universities |
| United States Naval Academy (MD) | 8% | 21 (tie), National Liberal Arts Colleges |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 8% | 5 (tie), National Universities |
| University of Chicago | 8% | 3 (tie), National Universities |
Don’t see your school in the top 10? Access the U.S. News College Compass to find admissions data, complete rankings and much more. Sign up for the U.S. News Extra Help: College Admissions free email newsletter to receive expert advice twice a month.
U.S. News surveyed more than 1,800 colleges and universities for our 2017 survey of undergraduate programs. Schools self-reported myriad data regarding their academic programs and the makeup of their student body, among other areas, making U.S. News’ data the most accurate and detailed collection of college facts and figures of its kind. While U.S. News uses much of this survey data to rank schools for our annual Best Colleges rankings, the data can also be useful when examined on a smaller scale. U.S. News will now produce lists of data, separate from the overall rankings, meant to provide students and parents a means to find which schools excel, or have room to grow, in specific areas that are important to them. While the data come from the schools themselves, these lists are not related to, and have no influence over, U.S. News’ rankings of Best Colleges, Best Graduate Schools or Best Online Programs. The admissions data above are correct as of Oct. 31, 2017.
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10 Colleges With the Lowest Acceptance Rates originally appeared on usnews.com
