SAT

What is the Good SAT Score to get Admissions into Top Colleges?

What is the Good SAT Score

What should your SAT score be? What is a “good” SAT score? We have answers to these questions as well as our best advice for preparing for this famously challenging test.

What Is a Good SAT Score?

A high SAT score will improve your chances of getting into a specific college. Although there is no such thing as a “passing” score, you should try to surpass the median score. The SAT essay section is scored separately from the Math and EBRW sections.

What Is a Good Overall SAT Score?

The sum of your two section scores for Math and Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (EBRW) determines your overall SAT score, which ranges from 400 to 1600. Each of these sections uses a 10-point scale ranging from 200 to 800. Your percentile ranking increases as your score increases. This is the percentage of test-takers who scored the same as or higher than you (during that testing year). For eg, if your SAT score was in the 72nd percentile, it meant you performed better than 72 percent of test-takers (and worse than 28 percent ).

Although there is no hard and fast cutoff for what constitutes a successful SAT score, percentiles can be used to estimate how well you performed in comparison to other students across the country. Any score above the 50th percentile, or median, is considered good, as it indicates that you performed better than the majority of test-takers. And, Find out SAT Exam Preparation Plan to get a good score.

The percentile charts below indicate good overall SAT scores and also good scores in the Math and EBRW sections individually. It’s important to note that the percentile rankings for scores can vary slightly from year to year.

Total SAT Score

Total SAT Score (Math + EBRW)

Percentile

1560-1600

99+
1520-1550 99
1420-1430 95
1350 90
1290 85
1240 80
1200-1210 75
1170 70
1130-1140 65
1100-1110 60
1080 55
1050 50 (median)

Math + EBRW SAT Score

SAT Math Score

SAT EBRW Score

Percentile

780-800 99+
790-800 760-770 99
740 710 95
690 670 90
650-660 650 85
620-630 630 80
600 610 75
580 590 70
560-570 570 65
550 560 60
530 540 55
520 530 50 (median)

 

What Is a Good SAT Score for Schools You Want to Join?

While percentiles say a lot about how you performed on the SAT in comparison to other test-takers, they don’t tell you what score you must aim for to get into the schools you’re applying to.

Different colleges and universities have their own set of score requisites. Some highly selective programmes and schools have minimum admissions requirements. Although failing to meet an institution’s SAT score requirement does not guarantee rejection, it does not bode well for your admission chances.

To improve your chances of being admitted to your preferred schools, aim for a SAT score that is equal to or higher than the average admitted applicant at that school. To put it another way, if the average admitted the first-year student scored 1300 on the SAT, you should aim for that score. 

Finding the middle 50% of SAT scores for what institution you’re applying to is the simplest way to find out what SAT score to aim for. The middle 50% of accepted first-year students falls between the 25th and 75th percentiles. Ideally, you can aim for a score in the 75th percentile of the school. If that’s too difficult, you can aim for a percentage higher than 25 Percentile.

On their official websites, several colleges publish SAT stats. Search up your school’s name and the phrase “SAT score range” on the web. Alternatively, search for an incoming college profile page or a facts and figures page on your college’s official website; this is also where colleges publish demographic information and data on newly admitted students.

Assume you’re submitting an application to Emory University. The middle 50% of SAT Math and EBRW scores of admitted students for the class of 2024 can be found on Emory’s class profile page. (You can use a combination of these to find the middle half of 1600.) You now know that you can aim for a score of about 760 on the EBRW section and 790 on the Math section, both of which are extremely high scores.

Depending on the colleges you’re considering, you can aim for a specific SAT ranking. Highly selective universities often prefer near-perfect SAT scores, while less selective universities consider applicants with SAT scores close to or below the national median.

The middle 50 percent SAT score ranges for students admitted in fall 2020 to 20 well-known U.S. colleges and universities are listed in the table below.

Class of 2024 SAT Scores for Admitted Students at 20 Popular Schools

School

25th Percentile SAT Score

75th Percentile SAT Score

Boston College 1410 1520
Columbia University 1500 1560
Hamilton College 1450 1530
Indiana University Bloomington 1160 1370
Miami University 1180 1380
Pennsylvania State University 1240 1410
Tufts University 1420 1550
University of California, Berkeley 1330 1530
University of California, Davis 1260 1470
University of Georgia 1310 1460
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 1290 1490
University of Maryland, College Park 1330 1490
University of Michigan 1380 1550
University of Minnesota Twin Cities 1300 1460
University of Pennsylvania 1470 1550
University of Southern California 1410 1540
University of Texas at Austin 1230 1480
University of Washington 1240 1440
Villanova University 1370 1500
Wesleyan University 1450 1560

 

What Is a Good SAT Essay Score?

The SAT includes an optional essay in addition to the Math and EBRW sections. This section is only needed if at least one of your colleges needs the SAT essay. Note that the SAT with essay costs a little more ($68 vs. $52) than the SAT without essay.

The SAT essay is scored separately from the Math and EBRW sections and uses a different scale. You’ll have 50 minutes to write an essay examining the author’s claims and overall argument in a given passage for this section.

Two graders assign you a score on a scale of 1-4 in three categories for the SAT essay: reading, analysis, and writing. Your essay will be read by two graders. After that, each will give you a score on a scale of 1-4 in three different categories: reading, analysis, and writing. This means that each category’s total score ranges from 2 to 8. A perfect essay score is three 8s, which means a 4 in each of the three categories from both graders.

The SAT Essay isn’t required by most universities, and those that don’t always include information about average SAT scores for admitted students. The College Board also does not provide percentiles for the essay, only the mean (average) scores for each category.

In general, anything above these averages is considered a good SAT essay score. As a result, a 6 on Reading, a 4 on Analysis, and a 6 on Writing should be your aim.

Having official prep materials and focusing on your weaknesses are two useful SAT study tips.

Getting into college for many students is about more than just good grades and compelling personal statements — it’s also about high test scores as well. In the United States, the SAT is one of two major college entrance exams (the other is the ACT). Although you don’t need a certain score to pass the test, a higher score will increase your chances of getting into college.

However, not all colleges need SAT scores, so double-check with your target schools to see if they require or recommend taking the exam before you pay to take it. Also, because of the COVID-19 pandemic, many universities have temporarily adopted test-optional policies, which means that SAT scores will not be needed for 2020-21 (and sometimes 2021-22) application period.

Online SAT Test Prep Course

Leave a Comment

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER

Stay up to date with test preparation tips, strategies and study guides.

You have successfully subscribed to the newsletter

There was an error while trying to send your request. Please try again.

IELTS, GRE, SAT, PTE, GMAT, CAT Test Prep Tips and News will use the information you provide on this form to be in touch with you and to provide updates and marketing.