5 things harder than getting into Harvard

Universities are reporting record-low acceptance rates across the board this spring, and Ivy League schools are no exception. At the top of the heap, Harvard just announced it accepted 3.19% of its applicants for the class of 2026, a record low for the Crimson Ivy amid record-high applicants. But in the real world, lots of jobs are even harder to get than getting into Harvard. Here are some of the most competitive opportunities in this week’s Five For Friday.

#1: Goldman Sachs summer internship

A record-breaking 236,000 college students applied for a 2022 summer internship at Goldman Sachs, with just 3,500 gaining admittance. Not surprisingly, this ambitious 1.5% haven’t been scared off by the barrage of complaints from overworked analysts, with some citing 95-hour work weeks. While it might be a rough summer for these future Gordon Geckos, the prorated $85,000 annual salary for the 10-week gig should cushion the blow.

#2: Secret Service agent

According to The Infographics Show on YouTube, fewer than 1% of those who apply to become a Secret Service agent actually make the cut. If your desire in life is to protect the president, you’ll need to first pass a rigorous background check, obtain top-secret clearance and take a polygraph — and that’s just to get into Secret Service bootcamp.

#3: Delta flight attendant

Landing a gig as a Delta flight attendant can be turbulent. Fewer than 1% are accepted after a very thorough interview process, but that’s just the start. Future flight attendants will go through months of training and testing covering swimming, self defense, and of course, the ability to stand on one’s feet for the long haul. 

#2: Tesla job

A very small 0.5% of job applicants at the electric vehicle firm will actually end up working for Elon Musk. That’s 2,500 people out of a pool of more than 500,000 applicants. Some have taken to Twitter to announce their rejections, which is kind of meta considering Musk is Twitter’s newest board member.

I got rejected by Tesla for the second time.
Here comes the third application.

— down horrendous mega rekt (@_notpleb) February 18, 2021

#1: Major League Soccer player

Most high school senior soccer players with major league dreams will be sorely disappointed. Only 0.09% of high school senior boys playing interscholastic soccer will eventually be drafted by a Major League Soccer team, or one in 1,000. Former boys soccer star Ousseni Bouda is that “one,” and getting there wasn’t easy. Growing up playing junior soccer in Ghana, Bouda made his way to the U.S. to play ball at a New York prep school before being recruited to Stanford University. The San Jose Earthquakes drafted him eighth overall in the 2022 MLS SuperDraft this year.