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.
In this article
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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.
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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.
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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:Â 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.