How do Bucknell and Colgate compare in admissions difficulty overall?

The biggest practical tradeoff is that these two schools sit in a very similar selectivity band, but Colgate is usually seen as a bit harder to get into overall. In broad admissions terms, Colgate tends to draw a slightly deeper pool of highly academic applicants and is often perceived as the more selective of the two. Bucknell is still quite selective, but it is not typically viewed as quite as difficult as Colgate on the admissions front.

That said, this is not a dramatic gap where one is clearly accessible and the other is out of reach. For a strong applicant, both should be treated as highly selective schools that can be unpredictable. The overlap in applicant type is real: both attract students looking for a residential, academically serious experience with strong campus communities.

One reason people group them together is that they appeal to many of the same students, especially those considering selective Northeastern liberal arts colleges or liberal arts-adjacent universities. But when counselors and applicants informally compare them, Colgate usually lands a notch tougher. That difference often shows up less in any single stat and more in the overall level of competition in the applicant pool.

So if your question is simply which one is harder in general, the answer is Colgate, by a modest margin. Bucknell is close enough that you should not think of it as meaningfully easy, but Colgate is typically the more difficult admit of the two.