Is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign or Stanford harder to get into?

The biggest practical tradeoff here is overall selectivity versus program-specific selectivity. Stanford is harder to get into overall by a very wide margin, while UIUC can still be extremely tough for certain majors like computer science, engineering, and business. If you are asking which school is more selective in the broadest sense, the answer is Stanford.

Stanford is one of the most selective universities in the country across nearly all majors, and admission is difficult even for applicants with near-perfect grades, top scores, and strong extracurriculars. UIUC is a highly respected public flagship, but it admits a much larger share of applicants overall, especially outside its most in-demand programs.

The reason people give mixed answers is that UIUC does admit by major in many cases, and some of its top programs are exceptionally competitive. A student applying to UIUC CS, for example, may face a much tougher process than a student applying to a less selective UIUC major. Stanford, though, remains more difficult overall because the level of competition is intense across the board, not just in a few departments.

So in plain terms: Stanford is harder to get into overall. UIUC is very competitive and can be brutally selective in specific majors, but it is not considered as selective as Stanford at the university-wide level.