Jun 4 • 🎓 Strategy Posts
📊 SAT/ACT Score Benchmarks: Sample Schools by Score Range
Final post in the testing series. Use this as a quick-reference guide to help you understand how your score compares — and where it might fit.
Categories are based on each school’s approximate 50th percentile score for admitted students.
🎓 1550–1600 SAT / 35–36 ACT
MIT
Caltech
Harvard
Stanford
Yale
Princeton
Columbia
UChicago
Duke
Brown
🎓 1450–1540 SAT / 32–34 ACT
Vanderbilt
Rice
USC
Tufts
Emory
Carnegie Mellon
Barnard
Amherst
Swarthmore
Williams
🎓 1350–1440 SAT / 29–31 ACT
NYU
Boston University
Northeastern
Wake Forest
Villanova
University of Miami
UC Davis
UC Irvine
UNC Chapel Hill
Georgia Tech
🎓 1250–1340 SAT / 26–28 ACT
Fordham
American
Michigan State
Loyola Marymount (LMU)
Chapman
UMass Amherst
University of Arizona
University of Denver
Baylor
Drexel
🎓 1100–1240 SAT / 22–25 ACT
DePaulCollege of Charleston
University of Oregon
University of Utah
University of Vermont
Ohio University
Temple
Kansas State
University of Alabama
📝 How to Use This
Think of these score ranges as a helpful guide — not a rulebook.
If a school is test-optional:
- Your score is higher than their middle range? ✅ Submit it.
- Your score is lower than their middle range? 🚫 Don’t submit.
If a school requires test scores:
- And your score feels low compared to your GPA or transcript --> Focus on test-optional schools instead.
- But: those schools still expect strong academics — if your grades and rigor aren’t a match, it likely won’t be a good fit.
📌 Revisit the 3-part testing series for help deciding what to submit and where (linked in the "One-Stop-Hub" pinned post up top).
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📊 SAT/ACT Score Benchmarks: Sample Schools by Score Range
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