Which is harder to get into: George Washington University or Duke University?

The biggest practical tradeoff is that Duke sits in a much more selective admissions tier, while George Washington University is selective but accessible to a noticeably broader range of strong applicants. In real college list terms, Duke is a high-reach school for almost everyone, whereas GW can be a reach or target depending on the student’s grades, course rigor, and overall profile. People do not usually talk about these two schools as being similarly difficult to enter.

Duke’s applicant pool is exceptionally deep, with many students presenting top academics plus standout extracurricular impact, national-level achievements, or highly polished applications. GW is well regarded and competitive, especially for popular programs and for students applying without a strong academic record, but it is not viewed as being in the same admissions category as Duke.

That difference also shows up in how students build lists around them. A student who is competitive for Duke would still never treat it as close to safe, while that same student might see GW as much more realistic. On the other hand, a student who is in range for GW could still find Duke to be an enormous jump in selectivity.

So the direct answer is Duke University, by a wide margin. If you are comparing admissions difficulty alone, Duke belongs in a far harder-to-get-into group than George Washington University.