Three California colleges are among the hardest schools to get into in the US

Click on the slideshow ahead to see the top 25 hardest schools to get into >>> Click on the slideshow ahead to see the top 25 hardest schools to get into >>> Image 1 of / 32 Caption Close Three California colleges are among the hardest schools to get into in the US 1 / 32 Back to Gallery

College ranking site Niche just released its ranking of America's most selective colleges for 2019, and three California schools are among the top 15. Spoiler: UC Berkeley isn’t one of them.

Pomona College in Claremont was ranked as the 15th-hardest school to get into, while Stanford University claimed the No. 2 spot on the list. Stanford University was just behind Harvard University which, unsurprisingly, took the top spot.

Another California school that made the top 15 was in Southern California; the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena came in at No. 3.

ALSO: Two Calif. universities ranked among top 5 in world

This year's new data has been updated to include 2019's incoming class. "All of our college rankings have been updated to reflect the latest data available as well as millions of new reviews we've collected from students and alumni over the last year," Niche's site explains.

Niche also broke down acceptance rates at these schools and found that Stanford University has a 5 percent acceptance rate, followed by California Institute of Technology's 8 percent acceptance rate. Pomona College has a 9 percent acceptance rate.

ALSO: The best colleges in California, according to Forbes

To determine the rankings, the study weighs primarily — about 60 percent — each school's acceptance rate as determined by the U.S. Department of Education. The other factor calculated into the ranking are SAT/ACT scores. Niche compiles this data based on the department of education as well as self-reported data from Niche readers.

Click here to see Niche's complete university ranking here.

Take a look at the slideshow above to see the top-25 most selective schools in the US

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Follow Susana Guerrero on Twitter and email her at sguerrero@sfchronicle.com

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