Average ACT Test Scores At The Top 30 US Universities
The average ACT scores for top schools in the United States are significantly higher than the national average of 19.5. Elite institutions like California Institute of Technology, Harvey Mudd College, and Harvard University boast average ACT scores of 35. Other prestigious universities such as Yale, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University have average scores of 34. For the most selective colleges, the 25th to 75th percentile range of ACT scores typically falls between 33 and 36. For instance, Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology have ranges of 34-35 and 34-36, respectively. These high scores reflect the competitive nature of admissions at top-tier institutions, where students often need to score well above the national average to be considered strong applicants.
| University Name | ACT Comp Mid 50% | ACT Composite |
| Amherst College | 32 – 35 | 34 |
| Babson College | 30 – 33 | 32 |
| Barnard College | 32 – 34 | 33 |
| Boston College | 32 – 34 | 33 |
| Boston University | 31-34 | 34 |
| Bowdoin College | 31 – 34 | 32 |
| Brandeis University | 31 – 34 | 33 |
| Brown University | 34 – 36 | 35 |
| California Institute of Technology | 35 – 36 | 35 |
| Carleton College | 31 – 35 | 33 |
| Carnegie Mellon University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Case Western Reserve University | 32 – 35 | 33 |
| Claremont McKenna College | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Colby College | 32 – 34 | 33 |
| Colgate University | 32 – 35 | 33 |
| College of William and Mary | 32 – 34 | 33 |
| Columbia University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Cornell University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Dartmouth College | 32 – 35 | 33 |
| Davidson College | 30 – 33 | 31 |
| Dickinson College | 27 – 31 | 30 |
| Duke University | 34 – 36 | 35 |
| Emory University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering | 35 – 35 | 35 |
| Georgetown University | 32 – 35 | 34 |
| Georgia Institute of Technology | 31 – 35 | 33 |
| Grinnell College | 30 – 34 | 32 |
| Hamilton College | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Harvard University | 33 – 36 | 35 |
| Harvey Mudd College | 34 – 35 | 34 |
| Haverford College | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Hillsdale College | 30 – 34 | 32 |
| Johns Hopkins University | 34 – 35 | 35 |
| Kenyon College | 31 – 36 | 33 |
| Lafayette College | 30 – 33 | 31 |
| Lehigh University | 31-34 | 33 |
| Macalester College | 29 – 33 | 31 |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 34 – 36 | 35 |
| McGill University | 33 | |
| Middlebury College | 34 – 35 | 34 |
| New York University | 31 – 35 | 32 |
| New York University Abu Dhabi | 32 | |
| Northeastern University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Northwestern University | 33 – 35 | 34 |
| Oberlin College | 32 – 34 | 33 |
| Oberlin Conservatory of Music | 32 | |
| Occidental College | 31 – 34 | 32 |
| Oxford College of Emory University | 34 | |
| Pitzer College | 31 – 33 | 32 |
| Pomona College | 32 – 35 | 33 |
| Princeton University | 33-35 | 34 |
| Stanford University | 34-35 | 34 |
| UC-Berkeley | 30-35 | 33 |
| UCLA | 27-34 | 30 |
| University of Michigan-Ann Arbor | 31-35 | 33 |
| University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill | 29-33 | 31 |
| University of Notre Dame | 32-35 | 34 |
| University of Pennsylvania | 33-35 | 34 |
| University of Southern California | 30-34 | 32 |
| University of Virginia | 32-35 | 33 |
| Vanderbilt University | 34-35 | 34 |
| Washington University-St Louis | 33-35 | 34 |
| Wesleyan University | 34-35 | 34 |
| Yale University | 33-35 | 34 |
