It seems to me that if you count out the elite Ivy League or Ivy-league-adjacent colleges that have <20% admissions rates, the only large research universities (or large colleges, period) are state colleges.
I don’t want to go to a state college because A) I don’t like the ones in my state (New York) and B) there’s several I would love to go to but the out-of-state tuition is too expensive. Are there any large private colleges that aren’t difficult to go into?
I haven’t been able to find examples of this third category of colleges which I find somewhat mysterious. Basically I’m looking for any private college that has an acceptance rate of >35% and a population of >10,000.
(P.S. The reasons I want to go to a large college aren’t a topic of debate for this thread but it has to do with the breadth of resources on campus.)
You can do that kind of search right up at the top of this web site under College Search. Try checking Private, then School Size Large, then look at the acceptance rates of the schools listed. You should see several right away with acceptance rate over 35%. Fiddle around to explore.
Private colleges are typically more expensive than out of state tuition at public colleges.
In answer to your question, check the student enrollment at these colleges.
Baylor Univ.
Temple Univ.
Syracuse Univ.
University of Tampa
DePaul University
Take a look at some of these - the 10K may come from combined grad/undergrad. I’m not sure what a private will get you vs. a public - it depends on the school but these are all private.
Denver
DePaul
Drexel
Fordham
GW
Hofstra
Marquette
Miami (maybe too low acceptance rate)
RIT
Saint Louis
SMU
Syracuse
If you go to the USNWR list of national universities you can filter by size and acceptance rate. Once this is done you can quickly scroll through the list and pick out any private colleges that interest you.
I can think of a number of larger private universities…but their costs are also high. If you can’t pay for out of state public universities, how will you pay for some of these privates (not all meet full need)?
Syracuse
Boston University
NYU
Fordham
University of Dayton
Are you in college currently and looking to transfer(this is what I gather from other posts)? If so, know that merit aid can be hard to come by as a transfer student.
I’d give SUNY Buffalo another look as a large in-state college option.
This is an assumption that is just not true. There are plenty of out of state publics that may be affordable. First you need to let us know what your family can afford, what major you’re looking for, what part of the country you are interested in, your GPA and test scores.
According to College Navigator (the feds’ website), there are 16 nonprofit private colleges that have acceptance rates of 40% or higher (I had to choose 30% or 40%, 35% was not an option) and that have a population of 10k students or more. Here’s the list: College Navigator - Search Results
Depending on what your price needs are, I’d take a look at DePaul and Loyola Chicago in particular.
If you’re willing to go slightly smaller, then these 15 institutions are private schools meeting the same criteria as above, but that are between 7-10k students: College Navigator - Search Results
There are also some public schools that offer no difference between in-state and out-of-state students. For instance, Central Michigan has a little over 11k undergrads and Grand Valley State has over 19k undergrads. They’re both residential (i.e. not commuter) campuses in Michigan.
