The Hardest College to Get Into in Every State

There are no shortage of superlatives when it comes to Ivy League Harvard University. It is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States, founded in 1636; it has produced more presidents, eight, than any university; it has the largest academic library in the world; and it produced 48 Nobel Laureates, 32 heads of state, 48 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The average annual cost of attending the University of Michigan is $29,407, one of the lower price tags among the nation’s most selective educational institutions. It is also one of the largest colleges on this list, with more than 30,000 undergraduate students. Fewer than one in every four applicants were accepted for the 2018-2019 school year.

Carleton College, located in Northfield, Minnesota, about 44 miles south of Minneapolis, is a small private liberal arts school that stresses interdisciplinary scholarship. The Carleton student community is described in the Princeton Review as tight knit and supportive. Among the notable alumni are Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jonathan Capehart and Melvin Laird, secretary of defense under President Richard Nixon.

Mississippi College, located in Clinton, which is about 11 miles west of the state capital of Jackson, was founded in 1826 and is the oldest institution of higher learning in Mississippi. It is affiliated with the Mississippi Baptist Convention, offering programs in the liberal arts and sciences, nursing, and business. The school’s stated vision is to be “recognized for academic excellence and commitment to the cause of Christ.”

Students at Washington University in St. Louis can design their own curriculum to help them to pursue different areas of study. The school was founded in 1853, and its hilltop campus was designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted in 1895.