Is Carnegie Mellon or Washington University in St. Louis harder to get into?

The biggest practical difference is that Carnegie Mellon’s difficulty changes sharply by college and major, while Washington University in St. Louis is more consistently selective across most undergraduate programs. Carnegie Mellon’s School of Computer Science, architecture, drama, and several technical programs are especially difficult to enter; applying to a less capacity-constrained CMU college can present a different level of competition. WashU is highly selective university-wide, with strong interest in academic preparation, intellectual curiosity, and community contribution rather than a single program that dominates the admissions picture.

Both schools attract applicants with very strong academic records, and neither should be treated as a target based on grades or test scores alone. At CMU, it is especially important to apply to the academic college that genuinely fits your preparation, since internal transfer opportunities can be limited or competitive, particularly into computer science. At WashU, applicants apply to one of several academic divisions, but the overall admissions experience is somewhat less defined by extreme major-to-major selectivity.

For an overall, school-wide comparison, Carnegie Mellon is typically viewed as slightly harder to get into, largely because of the extraordinary demand for its most prominent programs. That distinction is not universal: for some individual majors and applicant profiles, WashU may be equally difficult or tougher in practice.