--- 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3508 og:image:height: 1973 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=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # It's Harder to Get a Job at Walmart Than It Is to Get Into Harvard > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=2f56a916-182d-424c-a60f-657063980112&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) 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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