Categories of College Selectivity, By State

Added on by C. Maoxian.

I found this nice list of college selectivity and thought I’d re-present it by state. You should NOT consider attending any college below these top two tiers, unless it is your state university and cheap. There are fewer than 100 “selective” colleges in the entire United States.

First Tier:

California:

  • California Institute of Technology

  • Claremont McKenna College

  • Harvey Mudd College

  • Pomona College

  • Stanford University

  • University of Southern California

Connecticut:

  • Yale University

Illinois:

  • Northwestern University

  • University of Chicago

Maine:

  • Bowdoin College

  • Colby College

Maryland:

  • Johns Hopkins University

Massachusetts:

  • Amherst College

  • Harvard University

  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  • Tufts University

  • Williams College

Minnesota:

  • Carleton College

Missouri:

  • Washington University

New Hampshire:

  • Dartmouth College

New Jersey:

  • Princeton University

New York:

  • Barnard College (womens’ college)

  • Columbia University

  • Cornell University

North Carolina:

  • Duke University

Pennsylvania:

  • Swarthmore College

  • University of Pennsylvania

Rhode Island:

  • Brown University

Tennessee:

  • Vanderbilt University

Texas:

  • Rice University

Washington, DC:

  • Georgetown University

Second Tier:

California:

  • Scripps College (womens’ college)

  • University of California, Berkeley

  • University of California, Los Angeles

Colorado:

  • Colorado College

Connecticut:

  • Trinity College

  • Wesleyan University

Florida:

  • University of Miami

Georgia:

  • Emory University

  • Georgia Institute of Technology

Indiana:

  • University of Notre Dame

Iowa:

  • Grinnell College

Louisiana:

  • Tulane University

Maine:

  • Bates College

Massachusetts:

  • Boston College

  • Boston University

  • Brandeis University

  • Northeastern University

  • Smith College (womens’ college)

  • Wellesley College (womens’ college)

Michigan:

  • University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

New York:

  • Colgate University

  • Cooper Union

  • Hamilton College

  • New York University

  • University of Rochester

  • Vassar College

North Carolina:

  • Davidson College

  • Wake Forest University

Ohio:

  • Case Western Reserve University

Oregon:

  • Reed College

Pennsylvania:

  • Bucknell University

  • Carnegie Mellon University

  • Haverford College

  • Lehigh University

  • Villanova University

Texas:

  • Trinity University

Vermont:

  • Middlebury College

Virginia:

  • University of Richmond

  • University of Virginia

  • Washington and Lee University