ACT Scores for Admission to Selective Liberal Arts Colleges

If you're wondering if you have the ACT scores you'll need to get into one of the selective liberal arts colleges in the United States, here's a side-by-side comparison of scores for the middle 50% of enrolled students. If your scores fall within or above these ranges, you're on target for admission to one of these highly-ranked colleges.

Realize, of course, that ACT scores are just one part of the application. It's possible to have perfect 36s for each ACT subject and still get rejected if other parts of your application are weak. Similarly, some students with scores significantly below the ranges listed here gain admission because they demonstrate other strengths.

To see a full profile of each college, click on the names in the chart below. You can also check out these other ACT links (or SAT links):

ACT Comparison Charts: the Ivy League | top universities | top liberal arts colleges | more top liberal arts | top public universities | top public liberal arts colleges | University of California campuses | Cal State campuses | SUNY campuses | more ACT charts

data from National Center for Educational Statistics

Top College ACT Score Comparison (mid 50%)
(Learn what these numbers mean)

	ACT Scores
	Composite		English		Math
	25%	75%	25%	75%	25%	75%
Bowdoin	30	33	31	35	29	34
Bryn Mawr	26	31	27	33	25	30
Claremont McKenna	29	32	28	33	28	33
Colby	28	32	28	33	27	32
Colgate	30	32	30	34	28	33
College of the Holy Cross	Test-Optional Admissions
Davidson	29	33	-	-	-	-
Denison	27	30	-	-	-	-
Dickinson	27	30	-	-	-	-
Gettysburg	27	29	-	-	-	-
Hamilton	28	32	-	-	-	-
Kenyon	28	32	29	34	26	32
Lafayette	26	31	-	-	-	-
Macalester	28	32	29	34	27	32
Oberlin	28	32	-	-	-	-
Reed	29	33	-	-	-	-
Vassar	30	33	-	-	-	-
Washington and Lee	29	32	29	34	28	32
Whitman	29	32	-	-	-	-
View the SAT version of this table