SAT and ACT Scores for Admission to Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges

If you're considering a top public liberal arts college, you're most likely going to need SAT scores or ACT scores that are at least a little above average. The tables below can help you see how you compare to other applicants. You'll see that New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida's public university system, has the most selective admissions.  The tables below present SAT scores and ACT scores for the middle 50% of students enrolled in these top public liberal arts colleges from across the country. If your scores are within the ranges (or above the ranges), you are on target for admission to the school.

Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges SAT Score Comparison(mid 50%)

Learn what these SAT numbers mean

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ACT Scores for Admission to Selective Liberal Arts Colleges

By Allen Grove

If you click on the "see graph" links to the right of each row, you'll find a handy visual guide for the grades and standardized test scores of students who were accepted, rejected, and waitlisted at each school. You may find that some students with high grades were waitlisted or rejected from the school, and/or that students with lower scores (lower than the ranges listed here) were admitted. This is because all of these colleges have a holistic admissions process.

All ten of these colleges will accept SAT scores or ACT scores, so feel free to submit numbers from your best exam. Below is the ACT version of the table:

Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges ACT Score Comparison (mid 50%)

Learn what these ACT numbers mean

It's important to remember that standardized test scores are just one part of your college application. Perfect scores don't guarantee admission if other parts of your application are weak, and less-than-ideal scores don't need to be the end of your college dreams. Since these schools practice holistic admissions, admissions officers will also want to see a strong academic record, a winning essay, meaningful extracurricular activities and good letters of recommendation.

Another important piece of information to keep in mind is that since these schools are state-funded, out-of-state applicants might need scores even higher than these ranges. The top public universities tend to give preference to in-state applicants.

Data from the National Center for Educational Statistics