One of the most challenging aspects about the College Admissions process is knowing where to even get started. Until a student has gotten his or her SAT/ACT scores back it is difficult to know which schools may be considered either Reaches, Targets, or Safety schools. While grades are probably the most important factor in College Admissions (sorry, but you’re not getting into Princeton with a B- GPA), SAT and ACT scores are another crucial part of the application process.
What you generally want to look for when considering realistic targets is whether or not you fit in a school’s “Interquartile” range of test scores - that is, whether you fit between the 25th and 75th percentile of students who got into that school in the previous year. If you are comfortably above that range, then the school probably represents a Safety school, while if you are in that range or below then it can be considered a Target or a Reach (depending on other factors like your GPA). While it is not impossible to get into a school if you fall below the 25th percentile SAT/ACT score, it is very difficult unless you have an incredible story or other mitigating circumstances.
Here is a list of the “Interquartile Ranges” for the top schools in the country, organized by the 25th percentile SAT score for each school:
Cal Tech:
SAT: 1530-1590
ACT: 34-35
MIT:
SAT: 1490-1570
ACT: 33-35
Rice:
SAT: 1490-1580
ACT: 33-35
Chicago:
SAT: 1480-1580
ACT: 32-35
Washington University in St. Louis:
SAT: 1470-1570
ACT: 32-34
Harvey Mudd:
SAT: 1470-1570
ACT: 33-35
Harvard:
SAT: 1460-1590
ACT: 32-35
Johns Hopkins:
SAT: 1460-1580
ACT: 33-35
Columbia:
SAT: 1450-1580
ACT: 32-35
Vanderbilt:
SAT: 1440-1570
ACT: 32-35
Princeton:
SAT: 1430-1570
ACT: 31-35
Dartmouth:
SAT: 1430-1560
ACT: 30-34
Carnegie Mellon:
SAT: 1430-1560
ACT: 32-35
Amherst College:
SAT: 1430-1560
ACT: 32-34
Yale:
SAT: 1420-1590
ACT: 32-35
Northwestern: SAT: 1420-1560
ACT: 32-35
Pennsylvania:
SAT: 1420-1560
ACT: 32-35
Duke:
SAT: 1410-1560
ACT: 31-35
Tufts:
SAT: 1410-1540
ACT: 31-34
Brown:
SAT: 1405-1570
ACT: 31-35
Williams:
SAT: 1400-1570
ACT: 31-35
Stanford:
SAT: 1390-1540
ACT: 32-35
Cornell:
SAT: 1390-1550
ACT: 31-34
Haverford:
SAT: 1390-1530
ACT: 31-34
Swarthmore:
SAT: 1380-1540
ACT: 31-34
Notre Dame:
SAT: 1370-1520
ACT: 32-34
Georgia Tech:
SAT: 1370-1520
ACT: 31-34
Northeastern:
SAT: 1370-1520
ACT: 32-34
Pomona:
SAT: 1370-1530
ACT: 30-34
Vassar:
SAT: 1370-1510
ACT: 31-33
Wellesley:
SAT: 1360-1530
ACT: 30-33
Carleton:
SAT: 1360-1530
ACT: 31-34
Hamilton:
SAT: 1360-1510
ACT: 31-33
Emory:
SAT: 1350-1520
ACT: 30-33
Georgetown:
SAT: 1350-1520
ACT: 30-34
Washington and Lee:
SAT: 1350-1490
ACT: 31-33
Claremont McKenna:
SAT: 1340-1510
ACT: 30-34
Colby:
SAT: 1340-1500
ACT: 31-33
Case Western
SAT: 1340-1520
ACT: 30-33
Illinois Urbana-Champaign
SAT: 1340-1500
ACT: 26-32
Michigan:
SAT: 1330-1500
ACT: 30-33
Tulane:
SAT: 1330-1490
ACT: 30-33
Middlebury:
SAT: 1320-1510
ACT: 30-34
Rensselaer Polytechnic:
SAT: 1320-1500
ACT: 28-32
Boston College:
SAT: 1320-1490
ACT: 31-33
Davidson:
SAT: 1310-1470
ACT: 30-33
Grinnell:
SAT: 1310-1510
ACT: 30-34
Colgate:
SAT: 1310-1500
ACT: 31-33
Virginia:
SAT: 1310-1500
ACT: 29-33
Barnard:
SAT: 1310-1500
ACT: 30-33
Bryn Mawr:
SAT: 1310-1500
ACT: 29-33
Pitzer:
SAT: 1310-1490
ACT: 29-32
UC Berkeley:
SAT: 1300-1530
ACT: 29-34
USC
SAT: 1300-1500
ACT: 30-34
University of Rochester:
SAT: 1300-1490
ACT: 29-33
College of William and Mary:
SAT: 1300-1480 ACT: 29-33
Boston University:
SAT: 1300-1480
ACT: 29-32
Wesleyan:
SAT: 1300-1500
ACT: 29-33
Colorado College:
SAT: 1300-1490
ACT: 29-33
Macalester:
SAT: 1300-1480
ACT: 29-32
Smith:
SAT: 1290-1490
ACT: 30-33
Bowdoin:
SAT: 1290-1510
ACT: 30-34
NYU:
SAT: 1290-1490
ACT: 29-33
Scripps:
SAT: 1290-1460
ACT: 29-33
Brandeis: SAT: 1280-1470
ACT: 29-33
University of Wisconsin - Madison
SAT: 1280-1450
ACT: 27-31
Oberlin:
SAT: 1280-1450
ACT: 28-33
Occidental:
SAT: 1280-1440
ACT: 27-32
Union:
SAT: 1270-1430
ACT: 29-32
Bates:
SAT: 1270-1450
ACT: 29-32
Richmond:
SAT: 1270-1460
ACT: 29-32
U.S. Air Force Academy:
SAT: 1270-1410
ACT: 29-33
College of the Holy Cross:
SAT: 1270-1410
ACT: 28-31
Villanova:
SAT: 1270-1450
ACT: 30-33
Lehigh:
SAT: 1270-1430
ACT: 29-32
Mount Holyoke:
SAT: 1270-1460
ACT: 29-33
Connecticut College:
SAT: 1270-1400
ACT: 29-31
Gettysburg:
SAT: 1270-1410
ACT: 26-30
Trinity:
SAT: 1260-1420
ACT: 28-32
Kenyon:
SAT: 1260-1460
ACT: 29-33
Wake Forest:
SAT: 1260-1440
ACT: 28-32
UNC Chapel Hill
SAT: 1260-1440
ACT: 27-32
Ohio State:
SAT: 1260-1450
ACT: 27-31
Franklin and Marshall:
SAT: 1260-1420
ACT: 28-32
Lafayette:
SAT: 1260-1440
ACT: 28-31
Bucknell:
SAT: 1250-1420
ACT: 28-31
Whitman:
SAT: 1250-1450
ACT: 26-31
UCLA:
SAT: 1240-1500
ACT: 27-33
Sarah Lawrence:
SAT: 1240-1410
ACT: 27-31
Florida:
SAT: 1240-1400
ACT: 28-32
UC Santa Barbara:
SAT: 1240-1470
ACT: 26-32
University of Texas - Austin
SAT: 1230-1460
ACT: 26-33
Miami
SAT: 1220-1410
ACT: 28-32
Skidmore:
SAT: 1200-1400
ACT: 27-31
Denison:
SAT: 1200-1380
ACT: 28-31
Thomas Aquinas:
SAT: 1200-1380
ACT: 25-30
Pepperdine:
SAT: 1200-1390
ACT: 26-31
Georgia:
SAT: 1200-1370
ACT: 26-31
U.S. Military Academy (West Point):
SAT: 1185-1400
ACT: 23-28
Center College:
SAT: 1170-1410
ACT: 26-31
Syracuse:
SAT: 1160-1350
ACT: 25-30
UC San Diego:
SAT: 1140-1380
ACT: 26-32
UC Davis:
SAT: 1120-1360
ACT: 25-31
Remember, though, that test scores alone will NOT get you into a school by themselves. It's better to think of your SAT or ACT score as a "key" that will get your application seriously considered by the admissions committee. However, you better make sure to keep up your grades, engage in a number of extracurricular activities, and write some killer essays even if you are comfortably above the 75th percentile of any school that you are applying to!
