These 11 MA Colleges Are The Hardest To Get Into

MASSACHUSETTS — The hardest Massachusetts college to get into is Harvard University, according to a recent ranking that looks at admission rates and other factors to determine exclusivity.

Massachusetts has 11 colleges among the top 100 on the 2025 Hardest Colleges To Get Into list from Niche, whose rankings focus on education and the best places to live.

• Related: See Which MA Institutions Are Ranked Among Best In U.S.

In the top 20, Massachusetts had Harvard at No. 3, MIT at No. 6, Northeastern University at No. 15, and Amherst College at No. 20.

Colleges in Massachusetts among the top 100 and their acceptance rates are:

• Harvard University, 3 percent
• MIT, 4 percent
• Northeastern University, 7 percent
• Amherst College, 7 percent
• Williams College, 8 percent
• Tufts University, 10 percent
• Wellesley College, 14 percent
• Boston University, 14 percent
• Boston College, 17 percent
• Babson College, 22 percent
• Smith College, 23 percent

See the full list at Niche.

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
• MA Schools Rank Highly In U.S. News & World Best Colleges Ranking