--- title: Walmart Job Acceptance Rate Lower Than Harvard Admissions Rate description: The Ivy League institution is pretty exclusive, but it's nothing compared to America's favorite big-box store canonical: https://time.com/43750/walmart-acceptance-rate-lower-than-harvards/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-31T18:51:49.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:21.072Z og:title: It's Harder to Get a Job at Walmart Than It Is to Get Into Harvard og:description: The Ivy League institution has an acceptance rate of 5.9%, but a recently opened Walmart in Washington D.C. only hired 2.6% of applicants og:url: https://time.com/43750/walmart-acceptance-rate-lower-than-harvards/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf89fdd53c5019212/6986882436176096cd90b34c/140333295.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Harvard University og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: It's Harder to Get a Job at Walmart Than It Is to Get Into Harvard twitter:description: The Ivy League institution has an acceptance rate of 5.9%, but a recently opened Walmart in Washington D.C. only hired 2.6% of applicants twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf89fdd53c5019212/6986882436176096cd90b34c/140333295.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's Harder to Get a Job at Walmart Than It Is to Get Into Harvard by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 31, 2014 6:51 PM UTC  The campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. The campus of Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.John Coletti / Getty Images by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 31, 2014 6:51 PM UTC It’s pretty difficult to get accepted to Harvard, if you were unaware. This year, the elite institution admitted just 5.9% of applicants, according to newly released [data](http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-03-27/harvard-college-admits-5-9-of-freshman-applicants.html). Here’s the thing, though. Getting into Harvard is truly a piece of cake compared to getting accepted for a job at Walmart, at least according to data crunched by The Washington _Post_. The Washington _Post_ [reports](http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2014/03/28/wal-mart-has-a-lower-acceptance-rate-than-harvard/) that when a new Walmart opened in D.C., 23,000 people vied for 600 job openings. That means just 2.6% were accepted. Compare that to Dartmouth’s 11.5%, Cornell’s 14%, University of Pennsylvania’s 10% and so on, and you’ll see that Walmart is way choosier than all the Ivy League institutions. Even Harvard. We repeat, even Harvard. 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