It could be worse: These are officially the toughest unis to get into worldwide

A-Level Results Day is finally here. The day dreams are made or reshuffled, tears are shed (both happy and otherwise). Whether you’ve smashed it, scraped it, or are still staring at those grades wondering what on earth happened, one thing’s for sure: The uni race is tough.

Some universities are just built different with crazy-low acceptance rates, sky-high grade requirements, and enough competition to make The Hunger Games look like a casual group project.

But which ones are the hardest to crack? We’ve crunched the numbers, scoured the stats, and rounded up the world’s most exclusive unis based on how many applicants actually make it through the gates.

Ready for the ultimate academic leaderboard? Let’s count down the world’s hardest unis to get into in 2025.

20. University of Cambridge (UK) – 16.6 per cent

19. University of Oxford (UK) – 15-16 per cent

via Unsplash

18. Imperial College London (UK) – 10.2 per cent

17. Cornell University (USA) – 7 per cent

16. London School of Economics (UK) – 6-7 per cent

15. Dartmouth College (USA) – 6.23 per cent

via Unsplash

14. Duke University (USA) – 6 per cent

13. University of Pennsylvania (USA) – 5.6 per cent

12. Brown University (USA) – 5.2 per cent

via Unsplash

11. University of Chicago (USA) – 4.8 per cent

10. Massachusetts Institute of Technology (USA) – 4.68 per cent

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9. Princeton University (USA) – 4-5 per cent

via Unsplash

8. Yale University (USA) – 4.35 per cent

7. Colombia University (USA) – 3.93 per cent

6. Stanford University (USA) – 3.9 per cent

via Unsplash

5. Harvard University (USA) – 3.41 per cent

4. California Institute of Technology (USA) – 3.1 per cent

3. Indian Institutes of Technology (India) – <1 per cent

via Unsplash

2. Peking University (China) – <1 per cent

1. Tsinghua University (China) – <1 per cent

Unis with <1 per cent acceptance rates, like Tsinghua, are among the most competitive in the world, meaning fewer than one in 100 applicants get in, making them  the hardest unis to get into in 2025.

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Featured image via Unsplash and Canva