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It depends on the grad school.
Graduate school acceptance rates average around 13% - 15%. Some very popular departments like Economics can get down around 5%. Engineering - about 10%.
Compare that to undergraduate which sank down to about 5% this year.
Generally grad school has a higher acceptance rate. Med school (2-3%) is incredibly low while undergrad is somewhat in between.
Apparently, the Harvard School of Medicine didn’t make the cut of the ten most competitive med schools this year. It has a 3.5% acceptance rate and you needed a 3.3% to be on the list.
Don’t think it matters to be honest. Both are extremely hard, but if you are more concerned about your career prospects going to a good graduate school is more important than undergrad.
A much more restricted group applies for graduate school admissions, too. A PhD program application isn’t as simple as adding another name to a list of targets – it requires real work, and people who really have no chance tend not to bother.
On the other hand, I think Harvard (like others of its peers) has some terminal masters programs and non-law/medicine/business professional schools that are pretty much cash cows for the university. I doubt it’s super-hard to get admitted to them.
This is kind of a trick question. Maybe I’m paraphrasing JHS in saying that the higher acceptance rates for grad programs do not mean that they are easier to get into.
Grad school applicants tend to be a more self selected group, therefore even though you see higher acceptance rates, in real terms it is not easier to get into than undergrad. Also in general acceptance rate is only a component of what makes a school/ program selective, its not the only defining metric of selectivity.