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A Southern California university has been crowned the hardest college to get into in America, with several other California schools also landing spots among the nation’s most selective campuses.
The California Institute of Technology, better known as Caltech, in Pasadena, topped Business Insider’s list of the 35 hardest colleges to get into in the U.S.
The elite private university has just over 2,400 students and an acceptance rate of only 3 percent. It also boasts an enviable student-to-faculty ratio of three-to-one, giving students unusually close access to professors.
Founded in 1891, Caltech is widely regarded as one of the world’s leading science and engineering institutions.
It was also ranked the nation’s 11th-best college by U.S. News & World Report.
Among its most popular majors are Mechanical Engineering, Computer Science, Bioengineering and Biomedical Engineering, Chemistry and Mathematics.
Despite annual tuition and fees exceeding $68,000 before financial aid, Caltech ranks sixth nationally for value.
Graduates earn average salaries of more than $130,000 a year, helping offset the hefty price tag.
Coming in directly behind the Pasadena institution was Minerva University in San Francisco. The private school also posted a 3 percent acceptance rate, although its student-to-faculty ratio is a far larger 14-to-one.
Caltech wasn’t the only California school to feature prominently on the list.
In fact, the Golden State was one of the best-represented states in the rankings, with seven universities making the top 35 despite fierce competition from elite schools across the country.
Stanford University, located in the heart of Silicon Valley, ranked fifth overall. The prestigious private university has a 4 percent acceptance rate and a student-to-faculty ratio of six-to-one.
With the exception of UCLA, every California school featured in the top 35 was a private institution.
Several other California schools also made the cut.
Pomona College in Claremont ranked 21st, followed by the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) at No. 26. UCLA was the only public university from California to appear on the list.
The University of Southern California (USC) in Los Angeles ranked 31st, while Claremont McKenna College came in at No. 33.
Stanbridge University in Irvine rounded out the rankings at No. 35.
Business Insider said it compiled the rankings using the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics’ College Navigator database.
The publication identified schools that admitted 10 percent or fewer of applicants and then ranked them by acceptance rate for the 2024-25 academic year.
Where schools shared the same acceptance rate, Business Insider broke ties by ranking institutions that received a higher volume of applications above those that received fewer.
