Is Carnegie Mellon more selective than Boston College for undergraduate admissions?

Yes. Carnegie Mellon is generally harder to get into for undergraduate admission than Boston College, and that is especially true for several of CMU’s individual colleges, such as computer science, engineering, drama, and design. CMU’s admissions process is also more school-specific, so the level of difficulty can rise significantly depending on the program you apply to.

One key difference is that Carnegie Mellon is not selective in one uniform way across campus. Applicants are effectively competing within the college or program they choose, and some of those programs are among the most difficult undergraduate admits in the country. Boston College is certainly very selective, but its admissions process is less shaped by the extreme program-to-program variation that defines CMU.

Another differentiator is the applicant pool each school attracts. Carnegie Mellon draws a very concentrated set of students aiming for highly specialized fields, especially STEM, computer science, and the arts, which makes competition intense in those areas. Boston College attracts a broad, high-achieving pool too, but it is not known for the same level of hyper-competitive, niche undergraduate admissions in specific majors.

A practical way to think about it is that Boston College belongs on a highly selective list, while Carnegie Mellon often sits one notch tougher overall, with some programs substantially tougher than that.