Colleges With Under a 10% Acceptance Rate
27 colleges in the CollegeCalcAI database have an acceptance rate under 10%, spread across 14 states: 2 public and 25 private. The median admitted-student SAT (75th percentile) in this band is 1560. Ranked from most to least selective, the list starts with California Institute of Technology, Columbia University, and Harvard University. At this level of selectivity, top grades and scores are the entry ticket rather than the deciding factor. Every school here is a reach for everyone, and a balanced list matters more than anywhere else.
- California Institute of Technology3%acceptanceMost selectiveCA · SAT 1580
- Columbia University4%acceptanceMost selectiveNY · SAT 1560
- Harvard University4%acceptanceMost selectiveMA · SAT 1580
- Stanford University4%acceptanceMost selectiveCA · SAT 1570
- Yale University4%acceptanceMost selectiveCT · SAT 1570
- University of Chicago4%acceptanceMost selectiveIL · SAT 1570
- Brown University5%acceptanceMost selectiveRI · SAT 1560
- Dartmouth College5%acceptanceMost selectiveNH · SAT 1560
- Northeastern University5%acceptanceMost selectiveMA · SAT 1530
- Princeton University5%acceptanceMost selectiveNJ · SAT 1570
- University of Pennsylvania5%acceptanceMost selectivePA · SAT 1560
- Massachusetts Institute of Technology5%acceptanceMost selectiveMA · SAT 1570
- Duke University6%acceptanceMost selectiveNC · SAT 1570
- Vanderbilt University6%acceptanceMost selectiveTN · SAT 1560
- Johns Hopkins University6%acceptanceMost selectiveMD · SAT 1560
- Bowdoin College7%acceptanceMost selectiveME · SAT 1520
- Colby College7%acceptanceMost selectiveME · SAT 1500
- Pomona College7%acceptanceMost selectiveCA · SAT 1540
- Swarthmore College7%acceptanceMost selectivePA · SAT 1530
- Northwestern University8%acceptanceMost selectiveIL · SAT 1560
- Rice University8%acceptanceMost selectiveTX · SAT 1560
- Williams College8%acceptanceMost selectiveMA · SAT 1530
- Cornell University9%acceptanceMost selectiveNY · SAT 1550
- U.S. Naval Academy9%acceptanceMost selectiveMD · SAT 1400
- UCLA9%acceptanceMost selectiveCA · SAT 1510
- Amherst College9%acceptanceMost selectiveMA · SAT 1540
- New York University9%acceptanceMost selectiveNY · SAT 1530
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Acceptance rates and admitted test ranges reflect publicly reported data (U.S. Department of Education / NCES IPEDS / Common Data Sets) and are rounded. Estimates from CollegeCalcAI are a planning tool computed by a fixed, transparent model, not a guarantee of any admission decision.