Rutgers NB has an admission rate of about 65% and a highly regarded faculty in philosophy.
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I was going to mention Rutgers for a few other areas, but their acceptance rate is now about 45% (and likely a bit lower for fall 2025) after they moved to the Common App last year. So that’s below the threshold for this thread.
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Would it be correct to assume you prefer that the specific major or program (not just the school overall) also qualifies in terms of not being highly difficult for admission? If so, then majors like animation at SJSU may not qualify.
Yes, I would like the recognized field to have an admit rate above 50% as well. I was going to edit my original post, but I no longer can.
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I’m thinking most of the SUNYs would qualify - they each have a “field or program of distinction”. Bing and Stony Brook are probably too selective but the others are fair game. 
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I just looked, SB is 49% so close!
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I expect that there are probably many, many universities that would fit the description of “admitting over 50% with recognized areas of excellence”.
Colorado State University comes to mind for veterinary medicine overall, and also specifically for veterinary oncology.
If you want to go outside the USA, then Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia comes to mind. It is very good overall, and excellent for pretty nearly anything with “marine” in the name of the subject. For marine biology, marine law, marine engineering, … Dalhousie is excellent. Here is one example of an ocean project based at Dal:
https://oceantrackingnetwork.org/
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Stony Brook, well recognized for math and physics, just barely misses with a 49% admission rate overall (although these majors are not among the restricted majors). However, if the drop in the college age population reduces applications there, then the admission rate may rise to over 50% in the near future.
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But wouldn’t veterinary medicine be a post-BA/BS professional school program, likely with an admission rate below 50%?
True. Well below 50% in-state; way, way below 50% out of state.
Rutgers and Pitt have two of the top Philosophy departments in the world. I note at this point Pitt is right at the bubble with a 50% overall acceptance rate. To my knowledge it is not harder (maybe a touch easier?) to get the admittances you would need to major in Philosophy.
Then I feel like the University of Minnesota arguably is a hot bed for this sort of thing. Obviously this is crude, but you can look through Edurank’s citation-based rankings and find Minnesota in the top ranks for many fields and subfields, and although of course some programs may be below 50% (they are not very transparent about that as I recall), I believe many will not be:
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I agree they are not transparent. But a reason for this may be that the admit rates for most programs at UMN so high that they worry prospective applicants won’t see the school as prestigious enough.
I think UMN is a terrific “likely” school in many majors for the following reason:
-Quality programs in many disciplines as you show above in the world rankings
-Tons of research opportunities
-Easy to switch majors or add second majors. This includes access to majors such as CS that are often very difficult to switch into elsewhere. I know many students who started off in the college of liberal arts or the Ag college (both very generous admit rates) and were able to switch and pick up STEM degrees in other colleges.
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Arizona State is also very strong in Basket-Weaving.
ETA: They are in the famous Basket-Weaving T16
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No gen eds (other than a bit of writing), no prerequisites for any courses, one on one tutorial courses.
Of course, this program is much more selective than the university as a whole
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I was talking to a professor in the UA astronomy department 8-9 years ago. He said while it was very easy to get into the undergrad astronomy program, it was very hard to get into the graduate program. So in this case, UA’s relatively high undergrad admission rate wouldn’t necessarily have much to do with its high ranking astronomy and astrophysics program.
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Same thing with lots of PhD programs, in fact (admissions may be radically harder than the undergrad program).
As usual, I think the basic fact is just being admitted to a well-regarded department as an undergrad rarely does much for you. If you are then one of the outstanding undergrad students in your department, THAT could do something, but it won’t be easy.
All ten of these meet 50%+. Forensic science - for some forensic bio or chem - for those interested in Criminal Justice adjacent majors.
- George Mason University
- Hofstra University
- Penn State University
- Loyola University of Chicago
- Texas A&M University
- Towson University
- Saint Louis University
- West Virginia University
- San Jose State University
- University of New Haven
Best Forensic Science Colleges in the US 2025: Top 10 Picks!
???
Being admitted to a well regarded department as an undergrad means the opportunity to learn from world class faculty, work side by side in a lab with exceptional grad students, help edit a book or grant application written by a renowned scholar, be mentored by some of the top people in the field.
Is this not enough-- i.e. this doesn’t do much for you?
It’s a truism on CC that research spots are hard to obtain as an undergrad at large R1 universities. Empirically not true, especially for the universities who have research spots specifically reserved for undergrads. And you don’t need to be the top student in your department- at many of these universities there are more research opportunities than there are undergrads! It’s another truism on CC that professors at large U’s only teach grad students (not true) and don’t like undergrads (also not true).
I don’t agree with your “basic fact”!
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SJSU selectivity varies by major. For the forensic science majors, the competitively-determined thresholds for fall 2025 frosh were:
| Major | Threshold | HS GPA equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| Forensic Science - Biology | 2800 | 3.5 |
| Forensic Science - Chemistry | 2000 | 2.5 |
| Forensic Science - Crime Scene Investigation | 2880 | 3.6 |
| Forensic Science - Digital Evidence | 2000 | 2.5 |
(HS GPA is as recalculated by the CSU method)
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Exactly. Merely being admitted does not mean you will actually make good use of the opportunities you mentioned.
And in most cases you also do not need to be at a highly-ranked “top department” in your field, not as an undergrad. Many, many colleges are capable of providing industrious undergrad students with the education and experiences they need to go on to successful careers, including possibly after additional education, and including often LACs that will not even be considered for inclusion in certain sorts of departmental rankings.
My point was about the people who are specifically hoping to get some sort of special advantage by attending a college which has a highly ranked department in an area of interest. I think really getting much advantage that way is not as common as some people seem to think.
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