Here’s a sampling of the most competitive schools according to the 2009 U.S. News and World Report college and university rankings. The number in parentheses is the percent of students accepted from the entire application pool each year.

Notice that the Ivy triumvirate—Harvard, Princeton, and Yale—are kept from the top spot by two world-renowned conservatories, the Curtis Institute of Music and Juilliard. The talent at both of those schools is phenomenal.

Why not take a spin on our What Are My Chances? tool and see where you stack up with the competition?

10.  College of the Ozarks - Point Lookout, MO (11.8%)

9.  U.S. Naval Academy - Annapolis, MD (11.8%)
 
8.  Cooper Union - New York, NY (10.7%)

7.  Columbia University - New York, NY (10.6%)

6.  Stanford University - Stanford, CA (10.3%)

5.  Yale University - New Haven, CT (9.9%)

4.  Princeton University - Princeton, NJ (9.7%)

3.  Harvard University - Cambridge, MA (9.2%)

2.  Juilliard School - New York, NY (7.7%)

1.  Curtis Institute of Music - Philadelphia, PA (4.8%)