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What is a good SAT score?
Against all test takers, 1220 or more puts you in the top quarter of the class of 2026; against a selective university, a good score is one at or above its 75th percentile.
SAT takers of the class of 2026 scoring below 1,200 (estimate)
72%
| ACT equivalent (concordance) | 25 |
| Universities where you are above the 75th percentile | 0 of 96 |
| Inside the middle 50% | 22 of 96 |
| Below the 25th percentile | 74 of 96 |
Share below: interpolated between the quartiles and score bands the College Board published for the class of 2026. University ranges: newest cycle each school published. How this is calculated.
Built by Radif Partners · Method and data · Editorial policy
A good SAT score is one that sits at or above the middle of the range of the universities you apply to, and the national figures only set the scene. The College Board reports that the 1,954,833 students of the class of 2026 averaged 1,045 out of 1600 (528 in reading and writing, 517 in math); a quarter scored below 870, half below 1,030, and a quarter scored 1,220 or more. Only 8.6% reached 1400 or higher, and 691 students scored a perfect 1600. A 1200 therefore beats roughly 72% of test takers, yet sits below the range of most highly selective universities. A 1400 is above the 75th percentile at 22 of the 96 universities with a published range on this site and inside the middle 50% at 36.
Three ways to read the same score
The first is national: what share of test takers you beat. The tool and the College Board's report for the class of 2026 answer it, with the caveat that the class includes students who took the test at school in states where every junior sits it, which pulls the average down. The second is the College Board's own benchmark of college readiness: 480 in reading and writing and 530 in math, met on both sections by 42% of the class. The third, and the one that matters for admission, is the range of enrolled students at each university you consider.
Your SAT against every test taker
Class of 2026 takers scoring below you
72%
| Points above or below the mean | +155 |
| Mean total, class of 2026 | 1,045 |
Interpolated between the quartiles and score bands published by the College Board.
Good for which university?
A 1350 is a strong score at a large public university such as Arizona State and a low one at MIT, where the middle half of enrolled students scored 1,520 to 1,570. The useful question is where you fall inside each range. Above the 75th percentile, the score is an asset; inside the middle 50%, it neither helps nor hurts much; below the 25th, it becomes something the rest of the file has to make up for. The tool above counts, for your score, the universities in each of the three zones, and the acceptance rates table names them.
Test-optional, test-free, test-required
The meaning of a score also depends on the policy. At test-required universities, a growing group since 2024 that includes Harvard, Brown, Dartmouth, MIT and the University of Texas at Austin, every admitted student has a score and the ranges are complete. At test-optional universities the published ranges come only from students who chose to send a score, which lifts them, so a score near the 25th percentile can still be worth sending if the rest of the file is strong. The University of California and California State University campuses are test-free: they do not read scores at all, and their pages show none.
Superscoring and retakes
Many universities superscore, keeping the best reading and writing score and the best math score across dates. The national figures above count each student's most recent score, not the superscore, so a student who retakes the test and is superscored can sit higher in a university's range than the national percentile suggests. Each extra sitting costs a registration fee and a Saturday; for most students the gain after two or three attempts is small.
ACT instead?
If you took the ACT, the ACT to SAT conversion uses the official concordance tables, and the ACT score page places a composite against the national average and the university ranges.
When a score stops mattering
Beyond a certain point, extra points do little. At universities whose 75th percentile is near 1550, the difference between 1520 and 1560 rarely decides a file, and the time spent on a fourth sitting is better spent on courses, essays or an activity that shows depth. Below the 25th percentile of a school, the opposite holds: another attempt can move the score into the range and change how the rest of the application is read.