Standards of 'hardest university'?

I was wondering, when someone says a university is 'the hardest' or a 'tough school', what does that actually mean? Like, is it hard to get in, or hard to survive once you're in due to the rigorous courses? Is it both? Can anyone shed some light on this?

When people refer to a school as being "hard" or "tough", they could be referring to multiple aspects depending on context.

Some people may be referring to the competitiveness of admissions. For instance, the Ivy League and other top-tier universities such as Stanford or MIT are known for their selective admissions processes with low acceptance rates. These institutions typically require significant academic achievements, strong standardized test scores, and impressive extracurricular backgrounds from their applicants, thus making the admission process itself quite challenging.

However, "hard" or "tough" could also refer to the academic rigor within the institution once you're admitted. This includes challenging coursework, extensive reading lists, high expectations from faculty, and in some cases, a very competitive environment amongst the students. For example, schools with strong engineering or pre-med programs are often known for their intensive and demanding curriculums. Schools like Caltech and UChicago are often referred to as 'intense' due to the heavy workload.

Furthermore, it might also denote to a grueling workload or grading system. Some institutions might have grade deflation policies in place, meaning they intentionally lower the grades to prevent grade inflation, making it harder for students to obtain high GPAs. An infamous example of this is Princeton University, although they have abolished this policy in recent years.

So, in short, whether a school is "hard" can refer to the difficulty of getting accepted, the intensity of its academic programs, or the rigor of its grading system, amongst other factors. Therefore, it's important to consider potential factors when people discuss the "difficulty" of a particular university.