Top Private Universities Admissions Guides
Highly selective private universities outside the Ivy League, often matching or exceeding Ivy League selectivity — with specific strengths, like MIT and Caltech in STEM or Georgetown in international affairs.
Stanford University
3.7% acceptance · Stanford, CA
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
3.9% acceptance · Cambridge, MA
Duke University
5.9% acceptance · Durham, NC
Northwestern University
7.0% acceptance · Evanston, IL
University of Chicago
5.4% acceptance · Chicago, IL
California Institute of Technology
2.7% acceptance · Pasadena, CA
Johns Hopkins University
6.5% acceptance · Baltimore, MD
Rice University
7.7% acceptance · Houston, TX
Vanderbilt University
5.6% acceptance · Nashville, TN
University of Notre Dame
12.0% acceptance · South Bend, IN
Georgetown University
11.5% acceptance · Washington, DC
University of Southern California
9.9% acceptance · Los Angeles, CA
Carnegie Mellon University
11.0% acceptance · Pittsburgh, PA
Emory University
11.5% acceptance · Atlanta, GA