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

SAT HIGHEST
2024 Rank
School
Average SAT
% reporting SAT
9 New York University (Stern) 1545 42.00%
1 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 1528 48.00%
11 Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) 1527 25.00%
6 Cornell University (Dyson SC John) 1520 42.00%
29 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) 1516 41.10%
2 University of Southern California (Marshall) 1478 46.00%
13 Emory University (Goizueta) 1476 38.00%
5 University of Michigan (Ross) 1470 44.20%
33 Wake Forest University 1465 27.00%
16 Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim) 1462 15.00%
SAT LOWEST
2024 Rank
School
Average SAT
% reporting SAT
89 University of Akron 1024 22.22%
90 University of Texas at Arlington 1035 48.02%
60 Marian University (Byrum) 1057 22.50%
71 University of Michigan-Dearborn 1087 52.30%
81 University of the Pacific (Eberhardt) 1101 18.20%
83 Oregon State University 1132 7.00%
43 Lipscomb University 1145 8.06%
75 Bowling Green State University (Schmidthorst) 1166 8.50%

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

ACT HIGHEST
2024 Rank
School
Average ACT
% reporting ACT
9 New York University (Stern) 35.20 15.00%
29 Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) 34.00 12.40%
6 Cornell University (Dyson SC John) 34.00 14.00%
1 University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) 34.00 19.00%
11 Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) 33.80 28.00%
48 William & Mary (Mason) 33.00 17.00%
28 Binghamton University 33.00 7.60%
26 Southern Methodist University (Cox) 33.00 20.00%
7 University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) 33.00 28.20%
12 Villanova University School of Business 33.00 14.00%
33 Wake Forest University 33.00 23.00%
13 Emory University (Goizueta) 33.00 53.00%
ACT LOWEST
2024 Rank
School
Average ACT
% reporting ACT
90 University of Texas at Arlington 19.31 12.52%
53 University of Evansville (Schroeder) 19.40 15.10%
60 Marian University (Byrum) 20.60 4.90%
89 University of Akron 21.00 67.24%
73 University of Oklahoma (Price) 24.00 59.00%
43 Lipscomb University 24.15 37.10%
75 Bowling Green State University (Schmidthorst) 24.48 45.00%
72 Ohio University 24.50 30.60%
71 University of Michigan-Dearborn 24.60 3.60%

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