Is UC Berkeley harder to get into than Brown for undergraduate admissions?

Brown is typically considered harder to get into overall for undergraduate admissions. Even though UC Berkeley receives an enormous number of applications and is very selective, Brown is usually viewed as the more difficult admit in the general national admissions landscape. That is especially true because Brown’s applicant pool is self-selecting, highly academic, and concentrated among students aiming for a small group of very selective private universities.

For a student comparing the two in broad terms, Berkeley can feel harder because it is a large public university with intense demand, limited in-state and out-of-state spaces, and strong interest across many academic areas. Its volume is huge, and the campus has a reputation for turning away many qualified applicants. So the perception that Berkeley is extremely tough is absolutely grounded in reality.

Brown, though, tends to be the more selective school in the usual sense of overall difficulty of admission. It is a smaller Ivy League university, evaluates applicants in a highly individualized way, and draws a pool where top grades, rigorous coursework, and strong extracurriculars are often baseline rather than distinguishing. In practice, that means admission to Brown is often seen as a reach even for students who would be very competitive elsewhere.

If your question is simply which school is more difficult to get into overall, the standard answer is Brown. Berkeley is still exceptionally selective, but Brown is more commonly regarded as the tougher admit when you are not narrowing the comparison to a specific major, residency category, or program.