What SAT or ACT score should you shoot for to get into your favored business school program?
Poets&Quants believes that 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 score in our annual ranking of the Best Undergraduate Business Schools in the U.S. Standardized test scores – average SAT/ACT scores for the most recent incoming class – count for 10% of the admissions category.
THE RETURN OF STANDARDIZED TESTING?
During the COVID-19 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 days and disrupted classroom time greatly impacted students’ exam readiness.
Some wondered if the admission changes would become more or less permanent.
But, schools began reversing their pandemic testing pauses during the fall 2024 admission cycle. Dartmouth College was the first Ivy League to reinstate standardized testing as part of its admission process, requiring an ACT or SAT score from undergrad applicants. Harvard, Yale, Brown, University of Texas, and others followed suit.
Some schools remain test optional or even test blind – meaning they won’t look at standardized test scores even if applicants submit them. That includes the Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Massachusetts which ranked No. 41 in our 2025 ranking.
But, that is not the norm. Out of 104 ranked programs for 2025, just five did not report average SAT or SAT scores for the fall 2024 incoming class. Last year, seven of 91 ranked programs did not report test scores. That includes University of Washington, home of the Foster School of Business which ranked No. 32 in our 2025 ranking. UW removed its SAT/ACT requirement in June 2020 and has kept the policy ever since.
ACT OR SAT?
For students planning to take the SAT, there’s a major change to consider: As of March 2024, the test is now fully digital. The shift, which began with international test-takers in 2023, is designed to streamline the exam experience with a shorter format, adaptive questions, and faster results.
The new digital SAT is two hours long (an hour shorter than the previous version) and features a built-in Desmos calculator for the math section. The test is also adaptive, meaning the difficulty of questions adjusts based on a student’s performance. Students take the exam on their own device or one provided by the school, but the test is not at-home or remote-proctored.
The ACT remains available in paper-and-pencil and computer-based formats, depending on the testing location. To determine which test is right for you (and the school you hope to attend), use this story to start: Deciding Between the SAT and ACT? Here’s How to Choose.
For prospective students looking to gauge their admission chances, we’ve compiled the highest and lowest average scores from each test based on school submitted data from our 2025 business school ranking. You’ll find all the average scores from all 104 ranked schools on page 2.
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.
HIGHEST & LOWEST SAT SCORES AT P&Q RANKED B-SCHOOLS
Incoming students at New York University’s Stern School of Business (ranked No. 5 overall) and Cornell University Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management tied for the highest average SAT score at 1540. That score is five points lower than the average NYU Stern students posted last year, which was also our ranking high.
University of Pennsylvania’s The Wharton School (ranked No. 1 overall) posted the second highest average SAT of 1532.
The average SAT score across all 104 ranked schools is 1298, down from last year’s average ranking score of 1308.
SAT HIGHEST AVERAGE SCORE |
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2025 Rank |
School |
Average SAT |
% Reporting SAT |
| 2 | Cornell University (Dyson SC Johnson) | 1540 | 45.0% |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | 1540 | 46.0% |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 1532 | 51.0% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 1524 | 46.0% |
| 6 | Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | 1505 | 27.0% |
| 3 | University of Southern California (Marshall) | 1496 | 41.0% |
| 8 | Emory University (Goizueta) | 1488 | 41.6% |
| 4 | University of Virginia (McIntire) | 1476 | 50.0% |
| 11 | University of Michigan (Ross) | 1470 | 41.2% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 1469 | 32.3% |
SAT LOWEST AVERAGE SCORE |
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2025 Rank |
School |
Average SAT |
% Reporting SAT |
| 94 | University of Kentucky (Gatton) | 1167 | 9.2% |
| 61 | Florida Southern College (Barnett) | 1166 | 38.0% |
| 58 | University of New Hampshire (Paul) | 1161 | 18.0% |
| 70 | University of Texas at Dallas (Jindal) | 1140 | 61.0% |
| 96 | Oregon State University | 1132 | 4.0% |
| 74 | Towson University | 1120 | 24.4% |
| 104 | Kennesaw State University (Coles) | 1086 | 40.0% |
| 90 | University of Michigan-Dearborn | 1063 | 53.0% |
| 103 | University of Texas at Arlington | 1059 | 47.0% |
| 95 | University of Akron | 1036 | 14.8% |
| 76 | Marian University (Indianapolis) | 1003 | 51.2% |
HIGHEST & LOWEST ACT SCORES AT P&Q RANKED B-SCHOOLS
Looking at average ACT scores, NYU Stern led the way again with an average of 35.3 with 12% of incoming students reporting.
ACT HIGHEST AVERAGE SCORE |
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2025 Rank |
School |
Average ACT |
% Reporting ACT |
| 5 | New York University (Stern) | 35.3 | 12.0% |
| 1 | University of Pennsylvania (Wharton) | 35.0 | 15.0% |
| 6 | Washington University in St. Louis (Olin) | 34.3 | 27.0% |
| 10 | Carnegie Mellon University (Tepper) | 34.0 | 18.0% |
| 2 | Cornell University (Dyson SC Johnson) | 34.0 | 15.0% |
| 16 | Boston University (Questrom) | 33.0 | 9.2% |
| 8 | Emory University (Goizueta) | 33.0 | 44.0% |
| 13 | Northeastern University (D’Amore-McKim) | 33.0 | 7.0% |
| 11 | University of Michigan (Ross) | 33.0 | 22.3% |
| 7 | University of Notre Dame (Mendoza) | 33.0 | 25.9% |
ACT LOWEST AVERAGE SCORE |
|||
2025 Rank |
School |
Average ACT |
% Reporting ACT |
| 74 | Towson University | 23.8 | 3.1% |
| 100 | University of Kansas | 23.3 | 61.5% |
| 87 | University of North Carolina-Wilmington (Cameron) | 23.0 | 36.4% |
| 99 | Iowa State University (Ivy) | 22.8 | 24.0% |
| 75 | Texas State University (McCoy) | 22.6 | 6.0% |
| 104 | Kennesaw State University (Coles) | 22.0 | 15.2% |
| 98 | Northern Illinois University | 22.0 | 1.0% |
| 76 | Marian University (Indianapolis) | 20.5 | 4.8% |
| 95 | University of Akron | 20.1 | 52.9% |
| 103 | University of Texas at Arlington | 20.0 | 12.8% |
NEXT PAGE: Average test scores at all P&Q ranked business schools
