In this article, we are going to discuss 30 colleges with the highest acceptance rates. You can skip our detailed analysis of the rise of EdTech, the problems that it incurred and ChatGPT and go directly to 10 Colleges With the Highest Acceptance Rates.
As reaffirmed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, education is among the most fundamental of human rights. Over the past century, a strong link has been established between an individual’s income and their level of education. Apart from having a higher rate of employment, individuals with higher levels of education also tend to have a better sense of financial literacy.
A study by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis states that individuals with more education tend to make financial decisions that contribute to building wealth. Households with higher levels of education tend to have more liquid assets to fight financial storms, diversify their savings (investments) and maintain low levels of debt relative to assets.
While the global literacy rate has continued to rise over the past few decades, a lot of work still needs to be done. While the developed nations almost always have an adult literacy rate of 96% or above, the least developed nations have an average literacy rate of only 65%. The Global Education Monitoring report has revealed that in order to achieve the 2030 target for universal basic education, low- and lower-middle-income countries need to spend $504 billion or 6.3% of their GDP annually.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a massive impact on the global educational landscape and a part of this was also the rise of EdTech. The 45 largest education companies by market cap currently have a combined market cap of $76.43 billion, with Pearson PLC (NYSE:PSO) at the top of the list with a market cap of $7.31 billion. New Oriental Education and Tech Group (NYSE:EDU) comes in at a close second of $7.23 billion, however, the market cap of New Oriental Education and Tech Group (NYSE:EDU) hit a high of $32.8 billion in February 2021, during the pandemic.
The EdTech companies grew at an explosive rate during the past couple of years but this growth has not been very sustainable. A reason for this could be the rise of AI software, such as ChatGPT. California-based Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) saw its shares plummet to half earlier this month and was one of the first companies to publicly admit that the hit to its finances was directly related to the advances in AI technology.
According to CNBC, Dan Rosenweig, the chief executive of Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) stated that ChatGPT was having an impact on the company’s new customer growth rate. However, the chief executive of Chegg (NYSE:CHGG) also pointed out that ChatGPT struggles with providing accurate answers, a phenomenon known as “hallucination”. He said:
“Students can’t be wrong when they do homework or when they learn things. ChatGPT is often wrong and it’s not going to be right anytime soon”.
Another reason could be that EdTech has not lived up to its promises and there are concerns about the lack of evidence of the educational value of various EdTech platforms. According to a study by the National Institute of Health, a striking difference was observed between the educational quality of free and paid commercially-available “educational” apps for children.
Free apps scored significantly lower than paid apps, due to the presence of distracting enhancements. EdTech is undoubtedly an industry that is here to stay but perhaps some reforms or even a cultural shift are required.
That said, here is a list of 30 Colleges With the Highest Acceptance Rates.
Our Methodology:
As we mentioned in our article 30 Colleges with the Lowest Acceptance Rates, acceptance rate is a ratio of the total number of applicants to the total number of students who get accepted and is typically represented in percentage. It is important to understand that the acceptance rate for a college is not the same as its admission rate, which represents the number of students that chose to enroll and is usually lower than the acceptance rate.
For this article, to keep our data as objective and relevant as possible, we have only picked universities that are a part of the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2023 and the QS World University Rankings 2023. Then we have collected the precise data about the acceptance rates of their undergraduate programmes from reliable sources such as College Raptor or EduRank. To make our list global, we have selected institutes from every continent in the world. Also, we only mentioned universities with an acceptance rate of 80% and higher, to show that even some of the best-ranked institutes in the world can have very high acceptance rates.
30. Bielefeld University (Germany)
Acceptance Rate: 80%
Founded in 1969 and ranked 201-250th in the world, Bielefeld University is also called a “reform” university because it follows a different and reformative style of instruction and organization. It is contributing to educational reforms in Germany.
29. Federico Santa Maria Technical University (Chile)
Acceptance Rate: 81%
Ranked 1201-1500th internationally, the university was founded in 1926 in the city of Valparaíso. With its four campuses, it is one of the best engineering schools in the country.
28. Lakehead University (Canada)
Acceptance Rate: 82%
The ‘Lakehead U’ is a public research university that was founded in 1965 in Ontario. It is ranked 801-1000th in the world.
27. University of Guelph (Canada)
Acceptance Rate: 82%
Founded in 1964 in Ontario after the amalgamation of three different colleges, the university is ranked 501-600th in the world. It boasts a student body of over 30,000 in more than 90 programmes.
26. Delft University of Technology (The Netherlands)
Acceptance Rate: 82%
Ranked 70th in the world and founded in 1842, the institute is the oldest and largest public technical university in the country. Its eight faculties have more than 27,000 students.
25. University of Southampton (UK)
Acceptance Rate: 84%
Established as the Hartley Institution in 1862, the university is ranked 108th in the world. It boasts a student body of over 22,000 in seven different campuses and is famous for its Civil Engineering and Electrical and Electronics Engineering programmes.
24. University of Newcastle (Australia)
Acceptance Rate: 87%
Located in New South Wales, the university was founded in 1965 and ranked 201-250th in the world. It hosts international students from over 140 countries and has campuses worldwide.
23. Newcastle University (UK)
Acceptance Rate: 87%
Founded in 1834, the university is ranked 139th in the world. It has 16,000 undergraduate students enrolled in 175 programmes and even has campuses in Singapore and Malaysia. Among its alumni is also the famous English actor Rowan Atkinson.
22. Nanjing University (China)
Acceptance Rate: 87%
Ranked 95th in the world, the university was established in 1902 as the Nanking Higher Normal School. It has a student body of over 36,000 and more than 3000 international students. It is a member of the C-9 League – a group of higher education institutes often compared to the famed Ivy League. It also boasts more than 20 Nobel laureates as part of its faculty.
21. Miami University (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 89%
Founded in 1809 in Ohio, the institute is the 10th oldest public university in the United States. It ranked 1001-1200th in the world.
20. Alexandria University (Egypt)
Acceptance Rate: 89%
Founded in 1938 in the city known as the ‘Pearl of the Mediterranean’, it is a public university with over 150,000 full-time students enrolled in 23 different faculties. It ranked 801-1000th in the world.
19. University of Mississippi (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 90%
Founded in 1844 and ranked 801-1000th in the world, the ‘Ole Miss’ is a public research university. It is particularly noted for its strengths in engineering and scientific agriculture and boasts a student body of 23,000.
18. Cairo University (Egypt)
Acceptance Rate: 90%
Actually located in Giza, near the great pyramids, the university was founded in 1908 and is the largest university in the country. It boasts a student body of over 230,000 in more than 25 faculties. The university is ranked 801-1000th in the world and among its alumni is also the famed Iraqi politician Saddam Hussein.
17. West Virginia University (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 90%
Founded in 1867, it is a public land-grant research university that hosts international students from over 112 countries. It is ranked 801-1000th in the world.
16. Colorado State University – Fort Collins (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 90%
Founded as Colorado Agricultural College in 1870, it is a public land-grant research university and ranked 401-500th in the world. Among its alumni is also Jon Rubenstein, one of the main creators of Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) iPod and iMac.
15. University of Regina (Canada)
Acceptance Rate: 91%
Founded in 1911 in Saskatchewan as a private denominational high-school of the Methodist Church of Canada, the university ranked 601-800th in the world. It has over 16,500 students in 41 different programmes.
14. Pennsylvania State University (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 92%
Founded in 1863 and ranked 93rd in the world according to the QS World University Rankings 2023, PSU is a public state-related land-grant research university.
13. University of Kansas (USA)
Acceptance Rate: 92.8%
Founded in 1864, the university is ranked 401-500th in the world. It is a public research university that offers 370 different degree programmes to its over 27,000 students, of which, 2000 are international.
12. University of Lethbridge (Canada)
Acceptance Rate: 93%
Founded in the liberal education tradition in 1967 in Alberta, it is a research-intensive public university that ranked 1201-1500th in the world.
11. North-West University (South Africa)
Acceptance Rate: 93%
The university was established in 2004 in post-apartheid South Africa as “a strong symbolic act of reconciliation and nation building”. It has a total of 68,000 students of whom two-third are women. It ranked 601-800th in the world.
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