Is NYU or UChicago harder to get into?

UChicago is harder to get into overall. It is widely viewed as one of the most selective private universities in the country, and its admissions process is especially tough because it attracts a very self-selecting pool of applicants with strong academics and a clear intellectual fit. NYU is also extremely competitive, but across its larger and more varied schools, it tends to be a bit less difficult overall than UChicago.

One concrete difference is the kind of applicant each school tends to prioritize. UChicago puts unusual weight on academic intensity, curiosity, and alignment with its distinct intellectual culture, which shows up in its famously unconventional supplemental essays and the way it evaluates fit. That means even very strong applicants can be denied if they do not seem like a strong match for the school’s style.

Another differentiator is structure. NYU enrolls students across multiple undergraduate schools and programs with different levels of selectivity, so the difficulty can vary depending on whether you are applying to something like Stern, Tisch, or a less selective division. UChicago’s undergraduate admissions are more centralized, which makes the overall level of selectivity feel more consistently high.