Excellent Colleges with Higher Acceptance Rates

There are so many excellent colleges with higher admission rates out there to consider. This list names a few that admit 50% or more of total applicants.

In college planning, we often get caught up in focusing on the most highly-selective (or highly-rejective) colleges and universities in the US. 

But the truth is mucher kinder. There is a college of university for everyone.

So, while the odds made be ever NOT in your favor at the country's most selective colleges, there are so many other amazing options to consider. 

Based on Fall 2023 admission data (which is still the most widely available data available on the topic), here are 41 Excellent Colleges with Higher Acceptance Rates (50% or higher!) to help you build a more balances unviersity list.

State	University Name	Fall 2023 Acceptance Rate	Website
ALABAMA	Auburn University	71	auburn.edu
CALIFORNIA	University of San Diego	53	sandiego.edu
	Santa Clara University	54	scu.edu
	Pepperdine University	49.9	pepperdine.edu
	UC Riverside	66	ucr.edu
	UC Santa Cruz	59	ucsc.edu
	UC Merced	86	ucmerced.edu
CONNECTICUT	University of Connecticut	56	uconn.edu
DELAWARE	University of Delaware	70	udel.edu
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA	George Washington University	50	gwu.edu
	American University	64	american.edu
ILLINOIS	University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign	60	illinois.edu
	University of Illinois - Chicago	79	uic.edu
INDIANA	Purdue University - West Lafayette	69	purdue.edu
	Indiana University - Bloomington	85	indiana.edu
IOWA	University of Iowa	86	uiowa.edu
MARYLAND	University of Maryland, College Park	52	umd.edu
MASSACHUSETTS	University of Massachusetts - Amherst	66	umass.edu
	Worcester Polytechnic Institute	60	wpi.edu
MICHIGAN	Michigan State University	83	msu.edu
MINNESOTA	University of Minnesota - Twin Cities	73	umn.edu
NEW JERSEY	Rutgers University - New Brunswick	67	rutgers.edu
	New Jersey Institute of Technology	69	njit.edu
NEW YORK	Yeshiva University	62	yeshiva.edu
	Fordham University	58	fordham.edu
	Syracuse University	59	syr.edu
	Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute	53	rpi.edu
	University at Buffalo - SUNY	70	buffalo.edu
OHIO	The Ohio State University	57	osu.edu
PENNSYLVANIA	The Pennsylvania State University	58	psu.edu
	University of Pittsburgh	67	pitt.edu
RHODE ISLAND	University of Rhode Island	70	uri.edu
TEXAS	Texas Christian University	54	tcu.edu
	Southern Methodist University	53	smu.edu
	Baylor University	57	baylor.edu
	Texas A&M University	64	tamu.edu
UTAH	Brigham Young University - Provo	59	byu.edu
VIRGINIA	Virginia Tech	56	vt.edu
WASHINGTON	Gonzaga University	76	gonzaga.edu
WISCONSIN	University of Wisconsin - Madison	60	wisc.edu
	Marquette University	86	marquette.edu

Importantly, this post isn’t intended to encourage your move away from applying to potentially more selective college and universities. Instead, it is meant to do two things:

1. Help calm the storm stirred up by ultra-low admission rates at highly-selectives that bleeds into conversations about admission in general, and

2. Expand your personal university research to create a more balanced list.

College admissions is nerve racking – unnecessarily so at times. 

If you need more help building your university list, selecting your courses for next year, planning your extracurricular activities, or crafting your university application, reach out to us.

We can help, and we might just make this whole process fun too!