25 Most Exclusive Private, Nonprofit Bachelor’s Colleges by Admission Rate

As part of our ongoing “top 25 niche bachelor’s colleges” series, we chose to look at the most exclusive private, nonprofit, bachelor’s-granting colleges by admissions rate. This complements our earlier ranking of exclusive public bachelor’s colleges.

Private, nonprofit colleges are often associated with prestige, and getting in can be difficult even for prospective students with good marks in high school, as well as top test scores. However, if you feel you have the right characteristics as a top student, you might be surprised to find that some private schools can be more affordable than might appear, even for the most exclusive private schools. To wit, look at the interactive chart below:

This combination bar/ line chart compares official in-state and out-of-state tuition (blue and orange bars, respectively) and the average net price (all academic and living costs, averaged across all undergrad students at the institution for the last academic year) represented by the green dots and line. If you hover your computer mouse over any bar or point, you’ll see the name of the college and the three cost values. Colleges are arranged left to right by ranking #1 to #25 (e.g., most exclusive private, nonprofit college at the left — Stanford University.)

You can quickly see that the official tuition is the same for in-state and out-of-state students, at any given school, and that collectively, tuition ranges from $39,720 (Juilliard School) to $53,000 (Columbia University). You can also see that net price has more variation than tuition rates, going as low as $14,687 (Amherst College) to $34,352 (University of Chicago). The net price is only a measure that factors in other costs, financial aid, etc. Since it is a college-wide (undergrad) average, some students actually spent less than the lowest net price. What you pay depends on year, college and financial situation.

Some notes on using the above interactive chart:

• A modern browser is required for most of the charting features.
• The vertical Y axis represents cost in dollars, for both net price and tuition data per college.
• The horizontal X axis represents the schools (not the rankings).
• For this chart, schools are sorted left to right by increasing admissions rate (e.g., rank #1 to #25).
• Hover your mouse over a tuition bar or net price point and a tooltip will pop up that shows the institution name and the two cost values – net price and tuition.
• Use your mouse’s scroll wheel to zoom in on a section in the main chart. The sub-chart below the main chart will indicate what section you are viewing.
• Hover your mouse over either of the two labels, “tuition” or “netprice,” underneath the sub-chart to visually highlight just the selected chart.
• The chart is built using C3.js JavaScript code library, which in turn relies on the D3.js data visualization library. See http://c3js.org if you want to explore further.

Summary of Colleges Ranked in this List

Many of the institutions on this are amongst the oldest and most prestigious colleges in the United States. Some are also prestigious worldwide. So not surprisingly, all eight prestigious Ivy League schools (Brown University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Dartmouth College, Harvard University, Princeton University, University of Pennsylvania, Yale University) are on this exclusive colleges list.

Collectively, over half a million (527,152) freshman applications were submitted to these 25 colleges (possibly with some student overlap). Out of that set, roughly 10% of applying students (53,122; overlap possible) were admitted. And of those students whose applications were accepted at one or more of these 25 colleges, 28,607 enrolled (likely no overlap, unless actor/ filmmaker James Franco is still adding to his collection of six college degrees – one bachelor’s, four MFAs, one PhD).

Summary of Bachelor’s Programs Offered

We compiled a list of all available bachelor’s level academic programs, using the program names in the NCES.ed.gov database. In total, there are over 300 (303) different programs — with one or more bachelor’s degrees offered per program, depending on the college. The Top 10 programs by the number of colleges offering them are as follows. There is a six-way tie for the most common programs:

1. Chemistry, General
2. Economics, General
3. English Language and Literature, General
4. Mathematics, General
5. Philosophy
6. Physics, General

The above six programs are offered by 23 of the 25 ranked colleges. (NOTE: The exact name of degree programs may vary from college to college, and more than one degree path may be available.) Rounding out the Top 10 are four more programs, each offered at 22 of the 25 ranked colleges:

7. Geology/Earth Science, General
8. History, General
9. Music, General
10. Political Science and Government, General

On the flipside, certain bachelor’s programs are fairly exclusive:

• We found that 120 bachelor’s programs are only offered at one college each (possibly with some college overlap)
• 45 programs are offered at at most two colleges each.
• 28 programs are offered at only three colleges each.

In other words, nearly two-thirds of bachelor’s programs offered collectively across the 25 ranked colleges are only available at a handful of colleges.

Overall Statistics Summary

This is a summary of data available for the bachelor’s programs of colleges/ universities mentioned in this college rankings list.

Yearly net price range:	$14,687 – $34,352 (avg. for all students per school after discounts/ financial aid).
Tuition range (in-/out-of-state):	$39,720 – $53,000
Lowest net price:	Amherst College.
Lowest in-state:	Juilliard School.
Lowest out-of-state:	Juilliard School.
Graduation rate range:	84-98%.
Transfer-out rate range:	1-3% (only five schools reported).
Highest graduation rate:	Harvard University.
Lowest transfer-out rate:	Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art.
Student population range:	804-28791.
Undergrad population range:	569-14282.
Largest # students:	Harvard University.
Largest # undergrad:	Cornell University.
Oldest school:	Harvard University (est. ).
Youngest school:	Pitzer College (est. 1963).
# states covered:	14.
States covered:	California (6), Connecticut, Illinois (2), Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts (3), New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York (4), North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas.

Alphabetic list of schools covered in this ranking

The abbreviations used in the table below may not be official and in which case are used here for convenience only.

NCES Name (abbrev, estdate, rank)	location	$in-state	$out-of-state	$net price
Amherst College (Amherst, 1821, 20)	Amherst, Massachusetts	$50,562	$50,562	$14,687
Bowdoin College (Bowdoin, 1794, 23)	Brunswick, Maine	$48,212	$48,212	$22,289
Brown University (Brown, 1764, 8)	Providence, Rhode Island	$49,346	$49,346	$21,193
California Institute of Technology (Caltech, 1891, 10)	Pasadena, California	$45,390	$45,390	$26,910
Claremont McKenna College (CMC, 1946, 13)	Claremont, California	$49,045	$49,045	$23,982
Columbia University in the City of New York (Columbia, 1754, 4)	New York, New York	$53,000	$53,000	$20,838
Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art (Cooper, 1859, 24)	New York, New York	$42,650	$42,650	$17,453
Cornell University (Cornell, 1865, 19)	Ithaca, New York	$49,116	$49,116	$28,537
Dartmouth College (Dartmouth, 1769, 14)	Hanover, New Hampshire	$49,506	$49,506	$21,277
Duke University (Duke, 1838, 12)	Durham, North Carolina	$49,241	$49,241	$21,764
Harvard University (Harvard, 1636, 2)	Cambridge, Massachusetts	$45,278	$45,278	$15,095
Harvey Mudd College (HMC, 1955, 21)	Claremont, California	$50,649	$50,649	$33,137
Johns Hopkins University (JHU, 1876, 25)	Baltimore, Maryland	$48,710	$48,710	$25,207
Juilliard School (Juilliard, 1905, 7)	New York, New York	$39,720	$39,720	$29,013
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, 1861, 6)	Cambridge, Massachusetts	$46,704	$46,704	$22,212
Northwestern University (NU, 1851, 16)	Evanston, Illinois	$49,047	$49,047	$28,667
Pitzer College (Pitzer, 1963, 18)	Claremont, California	$48,670	$48,670	$26,082
Pomona College (Pomona, 1887, 15)	Claremont, California	$47,620	$47,620	$19,205
Princeton University (Princeton, 1746, 5)	Princeton, New Jersey	$43,450	$43,450	$18,885
Rice University (Rice, 1912, 22)	Houston, Texas	$42,253	$42,253	$20,512
Stanford University (Stanford, 1885, 1)	Stanford, California	$46,320	$46,320	$17,952
University of Chicago (U of C, 1890, 9)	Chicago, Illinois	$51,351	$51,351	$34,352
University of Pennsylvania (UPenn, 1740, 11)	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	$49,536	$49,536	$22,694
Vanderbilt University (Vandy, 1873, 17)	Nashville, Tennessee	$44,712	$44,712	$22,173
Yale University (Yale, 1701, 3)	New Haven, Connecticut	$47,600	$47,600	$19,317

Circular “Circos” Non-Interactive Chart: Multiple Data Points

This chart may appear intimidating at first. However, if you know what the charts/ text in each circular “track” represent, it’s relatively easy to visually compare multiple data points simultaneously – something that’s very difficult to do from a list or even a multi-data point rectangular chart.

Map for schools covered

Note: the following Google Map is auto-generated from addresses listed in the NCES database for the schools referenced below and may not be 100% accurate. As well, the map may not render correctly in some Web browsers due to security issues. (Simply click on the map’s “view larger” icon at top right to be taken to the Google Maps page — which should work properly in all modern browsers.) We apologize for any inconvenience.

Notes

• As college accreditation can change or only be valid regionally, please verify accreditation of any college to which you are planning to apply.
• NCES data is subject to change and this ranking list uses the most recently reported data at time of writing.
• The Areavibes cost of living score is from Areavibes.com and represents the city/ town of the college in question. It is independent of each college’s on-campus housing costs.

Rankings: Most Exclusive Nonprofit Bachelor’s Colleges by Admissions Rate