2024 Ranking: Average SAT & ACT Scores At The Top B-Schools

During the pandemic, thousands of colleges and universities went “test optional,” choosing not to require a SAT or ACT score as part of their admissions process. Social distancing restrictions canceled numerous scheduled test administrations, and disrupted classroom time greatly impacted students’ exam readiness.

Nearly four years on, some schools are now resuming previous requirements. Dartmouth College this month became the first Ivy League to reinstate standardized testing as part of its admission process, requiring an ACT or SAT score from undergrad applicants.

But some schools are remaining test optional or even test blind – meaning they won’t look at standardized test scores even if applicants submit them.

In our 2024 ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Programs, seven schools did not report any standardized test scores whatsoever, neither SAT or ACT. That includes University of Washington, home of the Foster School of Business which ranked No. 19 in our 2024 ranking. UW removed its SAT/ACT requirement in June 2020 and has kept the policy ever since.

ACT OR SAT

At Poets&Quants, we believe the quality of the incoming students is an important factor in judging higher education institutions. Learning is not based solely on the quality of your professors, but on the quality of your classmates as well. That’s why we count a school’s Admission Standards as a third of the final ranking score, and why standardized test scores count for 10% of Admission Standards.

As part of our ranking, we asked schools to provide the average SAT and ACT scores of their incoming classes. We converted average ACT scores to SAT using Princeton Review’s conversion tool to create an apples-to-apples comparison.

For prospective students looking to gauge their admission chances, we’ve compiled the highest and lowest average scores from each test. You’ll find all the average scores from all 91 schools on our ranking on page 2. First, you’ll need to know which test you should take. Use this story to start: Deciding Between the SAT and ACT? Here’s How to Choose.

Incoming students at New York University’s Stern School of Business (ranked No. 9 overall) had the highest average SAT score at 1545 with 42% of students reporting. That score is three points higher than the average NYU Stern students posted last year, which was also our ranking high.

Stern is followed by University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School (ranked No. 1 overall). Incoming Wharton students posted an average SAT of 1528 with 48% of students reporting (compared to 1519 reported last year).

The average SAT score across all 91 ranked schools is 1308.

HIGHEST & LOWEST SAT SCORES AT P&Q RANKED B-SCHOOLS

Looking at average ACT scores, NYU Stern led the way again with an average of 35.2 (15% of students reporting.)

It is followed by three schools that all posted an average ACT Score of 34: Carnegie Mellon University Tepper School of Business (No. 29 overall), Cornell University’s Dyson SC Johnson College of Business (No. 6 overall), and The Wharton School.

The average ACT score across all 91 ranked schools is 28.69.

HIGHEST & LOWEST ACT SCORES AT P&Q RANKED B-SCHOOLS

NEXT PAGE: SAT and ACT scores reported by all 91 undergraduate business schools ranked by P&Q for 2024.