Get Accepted: What Is The Average SAT Score Needed For College Admission? (2024)

Though many colleges and universities in the United States no longer require applicants to submit standardized test scores for admission, a good SAT® score can help you stand out from the competition. A strong SAT performance signifies your readiness for higher education and can even help you earn financial aid from a prospective school.

But what’s a good SAT score for getting into college? It helps to understand the average SAT score among incoming first-years at your college of choice. This information can help you set a goal score and plan your SAT prep accordingly.

This article serves as a valuable guide to how the SAT is scored, what’s considered a good score and how to boost your chances of getting into the college of your choice. Read on to learn why (and whether) it’s important to get a good SAT score.

How Are SAT Scores Determined?

Your total SAT score is the sum of your scores on the exam’s math section and its evidence-based reading and writing (EBRW) section. You can score between 200 and 800 on each section, meaning the total score can range from 400 to 1600.

The EBRW component contains both a reading test and a writing and language test, while the math section covers only math.

The SAT scoring system accounts for the number of questions answered correctly in each exam section, converting the raw data into a scaled score between 200 and 800. According to the College Board®, which administers the SAT, converting the raw data to a scaled score makes up for any differences in difficulty between test versions.

Within your score report, you’ll also see individual test scores for reading, writing and language, and math. Like the section score, the test score converts the number of questions answered correctly to a scaled score—this time between 10 and 40. To get your EBRW score, multiply your scaled scores for reading and for writing and language by 10, and add them together. Your math score is your scaled score multiplied by 20.

What Is a Good SAT Score?

Among students who graduated from high school in 2023, the average SAT score was 1028, according to the College Board. But a good SAT score depends on which college you want to attend and how your score compares to the competition.

The College Board recommends that once you’ve researched colleges and universities and chosen the colleges you’d like to apply to, aim for a score equal to or better than the average SAT score for incoming first-year students.

Colleges commonly publish incoming student profiles that contain data such as average standardized test scores among new first-years. For example, the University of Minnesota publishes an academic profile of admitted first-year applicants that includes median high school rank, high school GPA and ACT and SAT scores.

Scoring in the 75th percentile or above—meaning you scored higher than 75% of the students who completed the test—can help you stand out in the college admissions process, depending on where you apply. In 2023, the top 25% of SAT takers scored at least 1180.

What SAT Score Do You Need To Get Into an Ivy League College?

The more selective the school, the higher the SAT score you’ll need to stand out during admissions. The following are the middle 50% of scores for students admitted to Ivy League colleges, which make up eight of the nation’s most selective private universities.

Many Ivy League colleges have gone test-optional, so the below data reflects applicants who chose to submit SAT scores. To fill out this table, we referenced each university’s most recently published admissions data as of December 2023.

Average SAT Scores for College Students

Below you’ll find the middle 50% of SAT scores for first-year students admitted to colleges that required test scores for admission in the 2021–22 academic year. We sourced this data from the National Center for Education Statistics. We excluded data for for-profit colleges.

Breaking Down Average SAT Scores

The College Board reports that more than 1.9 million students took the SAT at least once in 2023, with an average score of 1028. The mean score in the reading and writing section was 520, while the mean score in the math section was 508.

Below we break down average SAT scores according to race and ethnicity, gender, native language, highest level of parental education and median family income. We sourced all data from the College Board’s 2023 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report. The language used in the tables below reflects the language used in the College Board’s report.

SAT Scores by Race and Ethnicity

SAT Scores by Gender

SAT Scores by Native Language

SAT Scores by Parental Educational Attainment

SAT Scores by Median Family Income

Do You Need a Good SAT Score To Get Into College?

While many colleges are now test-optional, meaning they don’t require applicants to take the SAT, many still accept SAT scores. A high score can set you apart as a highly qualified applicant and help you earn merit-based financial aid, including scholarships.

In 2019, a national SAT validity study found that students with higher SAT scores are more likely to have higher grades in college, as reported by the College Board. The research also found that students’ SAT scores and GPAs in high school are powerful predictors of college performance and how many students will remain in college beyond the first year.

If you’re applying to a test-optional college, omitting your SAT score from your application won’t hurt you. However, a high SAT score can help make your application stronger. Consider submitting your SAT scores if you’ve scored in the 75th percentile of students admitted to a prospective school.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Average SAT Scores