What's a Good SAT/ACT Score for the Ivy League? What's the Lowest Score I Can Get in With? (2024)

Are you aiming to attend an Ivy League school? What ACT/SAT scores do Ivy League universities—Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, Penn, and Yale—expect? Here, we look at what test scores these eight highly selective schools consider good, as well as what scores are considered borderline.

Disclaimer: SAT/ACT Scores Aren't Everything

When you apply to an Ivy League school, they'll be looking at many other admission factors beyond just your SAT or ACT score. In fact, if you were to ask any of these schools' directors of admissions whether a perfect score would guarantee you admission, the answer would be a big, fat NO. You need more than a perfect SAT or ACT score to get into an Ivy League school.

Ivy League schools look for strong test scores as well as strong recommendations, extracurriculars, and GPAs, which I'll call "Other Factors." If you have a great SAT/ACT score, then you can get away with merely excellent Other Factors. If you're at the bottom of the range, though, you'll definitely need a superstar rating in Other Factors. Keep this in mind as you read this article.

Exclusive Free Bonus: Click here to download a free step-by-step guide on finding your personal SAT/ACT score target. Once you go through these steps, you'll know exactly what score you need to aim for.

What's a Good SAT/ACT Score for the Ivy League?

An SAT score of 1555 (out of 1600) or ACT score of 35 (out of 36) will place you right in the top 25% for most Ivy League schools, whereas an SAT score of 1455 or ACT score of 33 would put you at the boundary of the bottom 25%. Thus, you can interpret your score as follows:

• 1555 SAT/35 ACT or higher: You don't need to improve your SAT/ACT scores. Work on making sure that you don't have any weaknesses in the rest of your college application.

• 1455 SAT/31 ACT or lower: You probably need to improve your score, and at the same time make sure you have at least one additional super strong component in your college application. Check out our guide on what to do with a low ACT/SAT score for tips.

Now, let's look at the 25th and 75th percentile SAT/ACT scores for all Ivy League schools:

If you're scoring lower than the 25th percentile on either the SAT or ACT, you'll have a really tough time getting accepted to an Ivy League school. Unfortunately, you just won't measure up to all the other highly qualified applicants who have extremely impressive SAT/ACT scores.

Clearly, these are very high standards. In fact, all 75th percentile scores for Ivy League schools are in the 99th percentile nationwide. To be at the top of the Ivy League application pool, you will need to be one of the top 1% of test takers in the country!

What's a Good SAT/ACT Score for YOU?

While these SAT/ACT scores for the Ivy League can be used as standard guidelines, everyone has a different target score. This means that you'll need to know the SAT/ACT score target that's right for you. But how do you figure this out?

Your target SAT/ACT score will be based on the colleges you're applying to. You'll need to find the average SAT/ACT scores of admitted students for all the schools you're interested in attending, specifically their 75th percentile scores. Aiming for the 75th percentile will give you the best chance of getting into all the schools on your list.

You can find SAT/ACT scores and percentile information for a school by visiting its admission page or by Googling "[School Name] PrepScholar SAT/ACT" For example, if you wanted to know what the average SAT scores for NYU were, you'd Google "NYU PrepScholar SAT."

Once you've found these scores for all the schools you're thinking of applying to, find the highest 75th percentile score on your list; that's the goal score you'll be aiming for.

What's Next?

Want expert tips on how to get into the Ivy League? Read our famous guide on how to get into Harvard and the Ivy League, written by a Harvard alum.

Curious how Ivy League schools compare with one another? Take a look at our in-depth analysis of the Ivy League rankings, and learn what these numbers mean for you.

What's a good SAT/ACT score for non-Ivy League schools? Our comprehensive guides explain what good ACT scores and good SAT scores are, depending on the schools you're applying to.