Colleges’ SAT Score Percentiles and Acceptance Rates

SAT score is a fundamental part of college admissions. Scoring a high SAT score will increase your chances of getting into the college you are dreaming of. We’ve shared below the US Colleges’ SAT Score Percentiles and Acceptance Rates.

📌 Hint: Do not skip this article, you will find FREE Digital SAT Math Prep resources throughout the article.

How to Read SAT Score Percentile?

The SAT score is the sum of two parts Reading and Writing and Math. In each section, the minimum score is 200, and the maximum score is 800. The total SAT score of a student can be a minimum of 400 and a maximum of 1600.

💡You might be interested in reading the Digital SAT Math Ultimate Guide post!

In the table below, the 25-75th percentile means that 25% of scores were below the low and 25% were above the high. This means that there were students who had SAT scores below or above these ranges, but the majority of the students were in the given ranges.

How to Read Acceptance Rates

Acceptance rate, or in other words, the percentage of applicants accepted, is the number of accepted students to a college divided by the total number of applications.

An Example of Colleges’ SAT Score Percentiles and Acceptance Rate

Let’s give an example of a college. Princeton’s SAT 25-75th Percentile is 1450 – 1570. This means that the majority of the students who were accepted to Princeton have an SAT score between 1450 and 1570. However, few students are out of this range and accepted to Princeton as well.

The acceptance rate of Princeton is shown as 6. This means that only 6 out of every 100 students who applied for Princeton are accepted. For instance, if there were 20,000 applicants for Princeton, 6% of the 20,000 is 1,200. Only around 1,200 of the applicants will be accepted.

💡You might be interested in reading the SAT Math Study Guide post!

Colleges’ SAT Score Percentiles and Acceptance Vary for Different Departments

It is important to remember that the given SAT score percentiles are for all applications to a college. If a college is famous for a particular department, most probably the accepted students’ SAT scores are higher than in the table and the acceptance rate is lower respectively.

For instance, Princeton’s Computer Science and Economics departments are world-wide famous. Therefore, the SAT scores of students accepted to these departments should be higher than the college’s SAT score percentiles.

College SAT 25-75th Percentile % of Applicants Accepted
Cal Tech 1530 – 1580 7
Harvard 1460 – 1580 5
MIT 1510 – 1580 7
Yale 1460 – 1580 5
Brown 1440 – 1570 8
Columbia 1470 – 1570 6
Harvey Mudd 1490 – 1570 18
Johns Hopkins 1480 – 1570 9
Princeton 1450 – 1570 6
Rice 1460 – 1570 11
Stanford 1420 – 1570 5
Univ. of Chicago 1500 – 1570 7
Univ. of Penn 1450 – 1570 9
Carnegie Mellon 1460 – 1560 17
Dartmouth 1440 – 1560 9
Duke 1510 – 1560 8
Notre Dame 1420 – 1560 19
Univ. of Michigan 1340 – 1560 17
Vanderbilt 1460 – 1560 12
Washington U. in St. L 1460 – 1560 8
Williams 1410 – 1560 15
Amherst 1410 – 1550 12
Georgetown 1380 – 1550 17
Northwestern 1430 – 1550 9
Cornell 1400 – 1540 11
Northeastern 1410 – 1540 20
NYU 1370 – 1540 21
Pomona 1390 – 1540 9
Swarthmore 1395 – 1540 9
Tufts 1380 – 1530 16
Emory 1380 – 1530 19
Georgia Tech 1370 – 1530 21
Univ. of Cal. Berkeley 1290 – 1530 18
Univ. of Southern Cal. 1340 – 1530 16
Case Western Reserve 1340 – 1520 30
Colby 1380 – 1520 10
Haverford 1360 – 1520 24
Middlebury 1340 – 1520 22
Reed 1325 – 1520 39
UCLA 1290 – 1520 14
Vassar 1360 – 1520 25
Wellesley 1350 – 1520 20
Wesleyan 1340 – 1520 21
Barnard 1350 – 1518 14
Bowdoin 1330 – 1510 9
Brandeis 1320 – 1510 34
Carleton 1340 – 1510 21
Grinnell 1340 – 1510 18
Hamilton 1380 – 1510 18
Pitzer 1325 – 1510 17
Smith 1325 – 1510 37
Univ. of Virginia 1320 – 1510 23
Boston College 1330 – 1500 26
Boston University 1310 – 1500 20
Bryn Mawr 1240 – 1500 38
Claremont McKenna 1330 – 1500 13
Mount Holyoke 1270 – 1500 52
Rensselaer Poly 1300 – 1500 57
Univ. of Rochester 1310 – 1500 35
Washington & Lee 1350 – 1500 24
William & Mary 1300 – 1490 42
Scripps 1320 – 1480 35
Colgate 1300 – 1470 32
Wake Forest 1290 – 1470 32
Worcester Poly 1310 – 1470 59
Colorado College 1240 – 1460 14
Davidson 1300 – 1460 20
Occidental 1270 – 1460 41
Kenyon 1280 – 1460 37
Tulane 1340 – 1460 11
Univ. of Richmond 1280 – 1460 31
Univ. of Florida 1290 – 1460 31
Univ. of North Carolina 1220 – 1460 24
U.S. Air Force Academy 1300 – 1460 13
Villanova 1320 – 1460 31
Connecticut College 1310 – 1450 38
George Washington Univ. 1270 – 1450 43
Macalester 1280 – 1450 39
Oberlin 1270 – 1450 35
Trinity 1290 – 1450 36
U.S. Naval Academy 1230 – 1450 9
Franklin & Marshall 1210 – 1440 37
Lafayette 1250 – 1440 36
U.S. Military Academy 1210 – 1440 9
Lehigh 1260 – 1433 50
Denison 1220 – 1430 28
Holy Cross 1290 – 1430 38
Purdue 1190 – 1430 67
Whitman 1230 – 1430 54
Bates 1210 – 1420 14
Lawrence 1190 – 1420 69
Rhodes 1220 – 1420 51
St. Olaf 1150 – 1420 51
Univ. of Miami 1250 – 1420 33
Univ. of Pittsburgh 1243 – 1420 64
Univ. of Wisconsin 1220 – 1420 57
Bard 1220 – 1418 59
Fordham 1230 – 1410 53
Gettysburg 1270 – 1410 48
Pepperdine 1200 – 1410 42
Sarah Lawrence 1220 – 1410 55
Skidmore 1220 – 1403 32
Bennington 1200 – 1400 60
Bucknell 1220 – 1400 38
Union 1210 – 1400 41
American 1220 – 1390 39
Univ. of Connecticut 1170 – 1390 599
UMass Amherst 1200 – 1390 65
Dickinson 1220 – 1380 52
Lewis & Clark 1198 – 1380 81
Syracuse 1160 – 1370 69
Virginia Tech 1170 – 1370 67
DePauw 1110 – 1360 68
Hobart & Wm. Smith 1180 – 1360 62
St. Lawrence 1180 – 1360 47
Allegheny 1140 – 1350 73
Clark 1150 – 1350 47
Muhlenberg 1170 – 1350 71
Univ. of Vermont 1160 – 1350 62
Wheaton 1160 – 1350 77
Penn State U.-Univ. Park 1150 – 1340 54
Sewanee 1150 – 1340 56
Knox 1080 – 1320 71
St. Anselm 1140 – 1300 75
Stonehill 1120 – 1290 69
St. Michael’s 1130 – 1280 88
UNH 1090 – 1280 85

Source: U.S. News & World Report, Best Colleges.

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Important Note: This table is based on the previous data on college admissions. Results may differ each year depending on the number of applicants, scores of the applicants, and other factors.

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