These 2 IL Colleges Are Among The Hardest To Get Into In U.S.

ACROSS ILLINOIS — The hardest Illinois college to get into is the University of Chicago, according to a recent ranking that looks at admission rates and other factors to determine exclusivity.

Illinois has two colleges on the 2025 Hardest Colleges To Get Into list from Niche, whose rankings focus on education and the best places to live.

Those schools and their acceptance rates are:

• The University of Chicago in Chicago, which is ranked as the ninth hardest college to get into in the U.S., has an acceptance rate of just 5 percent. The University of Chicago receives the highest ranks in academics and diversity on Niche's report card.
• Northwestern University in Evanston, which is ranked as the 18th hardest college to get into in the U.S., has an acceptance rate of 7 percent. Northwestern University receives top ranks in academics and diversity as well.

Niche said ACT and SAT scores have been removed in this year’s rankings “to reflect a general de-emphasis on test scores in the college admissions process.”

• Related: Hardest U.S. College To Get Into Is Not An Exclusive Ivy League School

Nationally, the hardest schools to get into are:

1. Minerva University, San Francisco (1 percent)
2. California Institute of Technology, Pasadena (3 percent),
3. Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts (3 percent)
4. Stanford University, Stanford, California (4 percent)
5. Columbia University, New York City (4 percent)
6. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (4 percent)
7. Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut (5 percent)
8. Brown University, Providence, Rhode Island (5 percent)
9. University of Chicago (5 percent)
10. Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey (6 percent)
11. Duke University, Durham, North Carolina (6 percent)
12. Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire (6 percent)
13. University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (7 percent)
14. Vanderbilt University, Nashville (7 percent)
15. Northeastern University, Boston (7 percent)
16. Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania (7 percent)
17. Pomona College, Claremont, California (7 percent)
18. Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois (7 percent)
19. Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (7 percent)
20. Amherst College, Amherst, Massachusetts (7 percent)

Three of those schools — Johns Hopkins University, Northwestern University and Vanderbilt University — are what Forbes calls “the New Ivies,” 20 public and private schools that offer good job prospects to graduates as employers turn away from the nation’s oldest and most venerable schools.

• Related: Forbes Names 20 Colleges ‘New Ivies,’ Says Employers Prefer Them