Second-tier schools in this list have a roughly 25% SAT overlap with adjacent top 50 schools. The 25th percentile SAT of the top 50 school is roughly the same as the 75th SAT percentile of nearby second tier schools. If you are in the top 25% SAT of the nearby second tier school, you would have a reasonable chance for admission at the nearby top 50 school. You might also say that, if the second tier school is a safety for you, then the nearby top 50 school is a reasonable reach.
Interesting? What do you think?
tier, SAT 25th percentile, SAT 75th percentile, SAT midpoint, name of school
top 50 1490 1600 1545 California Institute of Technology
****** 1230 1470 1350 Brandeis University
****** 1210 1470 1340 Bryn Mawr College
****** 1250 1450 1350 University of Rochester
****** 1230 1450 1340 Macalester College
top 50 1440 1590 1515 University of Chicago
****** 1240 1440 1340 Barnard College
****** 1230 1440 1335 Davidson College
****** 1160 1440 1300 University of California-Los Angeles
top 50 1430 1570 1500 Massachusetts Institute of Technology
****** 1220 1430 1325 Colorado College
****** 1170 1430 1300 University of Minnesota-Twin Cities
****** 1220 1423 1322 Whitman College
top 50 1420 1550 1485 Washington University in St Louis
****** 1230 1420 1325 University of Miami
****** 1210 1420 1315 Wheaton College
****** 1200 1420 1310 University of Maryland-College Park
****** 1180 1420 1300 St Olaf College
top 50 1410 1600 1505 Harvard University
top 50 1410 1600 1505 Princeton University
top 50 1410 1590 1500 Yale University
top 50 1410 1570 1490 Vanderbilt University
****** 1230 1410 1320 Kenyon College
****** 1220 1410 1315 Lehigh University
****** 1210 1410 1310 University of Richmond
****** 1200 1410 1305 University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
top 50 1400 1560 1480 Harvey Mudd College
****** 1240 1400 1320 Tulane University of Louisiana
****** 1220 1400 1310 Union College
****** 1210 1400 1305 United States Air Force Academy
****** 1210 1400 1305 Villanova University
****** 1210 1400 1305 Occidental College
****** 1200 1400 1300 Bucknell University
****** 1190 1400 1295 Polytechnic Institute of New York University
****** 1160 1400 1280 University of Wisconsin-Madison
****** 1130 1400 1265 University of Tulsa
top 50 1390 1570 1480 Columbia University in the City of New York
top 50 1390 1550 1470 Northwestern University
****** 1220 1390 1305 Southern Methodist University
****** 1210 1390 1300 Stevens Institute of Technology
****** 1200 1390 1295 Colorado School of Mines
****** 1200 1390 1295 George Washington University
****** 1180 1390 1285 Boston University
****** 1180 1390 1285 SUNY College at Geneseo
****** 1170 1390 1280 University of California-San Diego
****** 1220 1385 1303 SUNY at Binghamton
****** 1180 1385 1283 United States Military Academy
top 50 1380 1570 1475 Stanford University
top 50 1380 1540 1460 Pomona College
****** 1200 1380 1290 Santa Clara University
****** 1190 1380 1285 New College of Florida
****** 1180 1380 1280 United States Naval Academy
****** 1160 1380 1270 Illinois Institute of Technology
****** 1150 1380 1265 Ohio State University-Main Campus
****** 1140 1380 1260 The University of Texas at Austin
top 50 1370 1550 1460 Rice University
top 50 1370 1520 1445 Tufts University
****** 1200 1370 1285 Gettysburg College
****** 1180 1370 1275 Lafayette College
****** 1180 1370 1275 Lewis & Clark College
****** 1170 1370 1270 Rhodes College
****** 1150 1370 1260 The University of Texas at Dallas
****** 1150 1370 1260 Trinity University
****** 1100 1370 1235 Yeshiva University
****** 1090 1370 1230 Beloit College
****** 1190 1365 1278 Dickinson College
****** 0988 1363 1176 Coe College
top 50 1360 1550 1455 Duke University
top 50 1360 1540 1450 University of Pennsylvania
top 50 1360 1510 1435 Bowdoin College
****** 1190 1360 1275 United States Coast Guard Academy
****** 1170 1360 1265 University of Florida
****** 1150 1360 1255 Brigham Young University-Provo
****** 1130 1360 1245 Missouri University of Science and Technology
****** 1100 1360 1230 University of Washington-Seattle Campus
****** 1090 1360 1225 Kalamazoo College
****** 1080 1360 1220 Illinois Wesleyan University
top 50 1350 1560 1455 Dartmouth College
top 50 1350 1530 1440 Amherst College
top 50 1350 1530 1440 Swarthmore College
****** 1160 1350 1255 Fordham University
****** 1160 1350 1255 American University
****** 1150 1350 1250 Stony Brook University
****** 1150 1350 1250 Trinity College
****** 1130 1350 1240 Skidmore College
****** 1120 1350 1235 New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology
****** 1110 1350 1230 Centre College
****** 1100 1350 1225 Union University
top 50 1340 1530 1435 Carnegie Mellon University
top 50 1340 1520 1430 Carleton College
top 50 1340 1520 1430 University of Notre Dame
****** 1170 1340 1255 University of Pittsburgh-Pittsburgh Campus
****** 1160 1340 1250 Thomas Aquinas College
****** 1150 1340 1245 Clemson University
****** 1150 1340 1245 Earlham College
****** 1140 1340 1240 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo
****** 1140 1340 1240 Muhlenberg College
****** 1130 1340 1235 The College of New Jersey
****** 1130 1340 1235 Pepperdine University
****** 1120 1340 1230 Furman University
****** 1090 1340 1215 University of California-Santa Barbara
****** 1080 1340 1210 Soka University of America
****** 1080 1340 1210 Gustavus Adolphus College
****** 1050 1340 1195 Hope College
****** 0920 1340 1130 North Greenville University
****** 1093 1338 1216 DigiPen Institute of Technology
****** 1079 1334 1207 Grove City College
top 50 1330 1560 1445 Williams College
top 50 1330 1540 1435 Brown University
****** 1190 1330 1260 Denison University
****** 1140 1330 1235 University of Georgia
****** 1130 1330 1230 University of Connecticut
****** 1120 1330 1225 Miami University-Oxford
****** 1120 1330 1225 Baylor University
****** 1120 1330 1225 University of Puget Sound
****** 1100 1330 1215 Michigan Technological University
****** 1100 1330 1215 Austin College
****** 1100 1330 1215 The College of Wooster
****** 1090 1330 1210 Rutgers University-New Brunswick
****** 1090 1330 1210 University of Dallas
****** 1080 1330 1205 Truman State University
****** 1070 1330 1200 DePauw University
****** 1070 1330 1200 Hendrix College
****** 1060 1330 1195 University of Minnesota-Morris
****** 1010 1330 1170 University of Nebraska-Lincoln
****** 1028 1323 1176 University of Michigan-Flint
top 50 1320 1520 1420 Cornell University
top 50 1320 1510 1415 Johns Hopkins University
top 50 1320 1500 1410 Claremont McKenna College
****** 1140 1320 1230 Sewanee-The University of the South
****** 1140 1320 1230 Emerson College
****** 1130 1320 1225 CUNY Bernard M Baruch College
****** 1130 1320 1225 Milwaukee School of Engineering
****** 1120 1320 1220 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
****** 1120 1320 1220 Elon University
****** 1110 1320 1215 Rochester Institute of Technology
****** 1110 1320 1215 University of San Diego
****** 1110 1320 1215 St Mary’s College of Maryland
****** 1100 1320 1210 University of Denver
****** 1080 1320 1200 Purdue University-Main Campus
****** 1080 1320 1200 Saint Louis University
****** 1070 1320 1195 University of California-Davis
****** 1070 1320 1195 Drake University
****** 1030 1320 1175 University of the Pacific
****** 1030 1320 1175 Cornell College
Not particularly useful, in my opinion. I think you’d be better off comparing the midpoint SAT of the lower school with the 25th of the higher school - that would make for more reasonable comparisons. I also don’t think the lower 25th at a highly selective school makes that school a good reach for a normal applicant.The bottom 25% of the highly selective schools is likely mostly hooked applicants (athletes, legacies, URMs, etc…)
Also, although standardized test scores are a useful starting point for this kind of analysis, most of the highly selective schools weigh academic record (GPA, course rigor, etc) equally if not more highly.
****** 1095 1315 1205 Eureka College
****** 1008 1315 1162 William Jewell College
****** 1076 1314 1195 University of Puerto Rico-Rio Piedras
****** 0966 1313 1140 University of Northwestern-St Paul
top 50 1310 1510 1410 Wellesley College
top 50 1310 1500 1405 Georgetown University
top 50 1310 1490 1400 Haverford College
top 50 1310 1470 1390 Vassar College
top 50 1310 1460 1385 Washington and Lee University
****** 1140 1310 1225 Bentley University
****** 1140 1310 1225 North Carolina State University at Raleigh
****** 1110 1310 1210 University of Maryland-Baltimore County
****** 1110 1310 1210 University of Massachusetts-Amherst
****** 1080 1310 1195 Willamette University
****** 1070 1310 1190 Drexel University
****** 1060 1310 1185 Westmont College
****** 1048 1310 1179 Calvin College
****** 1030 1310 1170 Taylor University
****** 1000 1310 1155 Ripon College
****** 0948 1304 1126 Dallas Baptist University
top 50 1300 1480 1390 Northeastern University
top 50 1300 1480 1390 Wesleyan University
top 50 1300 1470 1385 Hamilton College
****** 1160 1300 1230 University of Iowa
****** 1120 1300 1210 Chapman University
****** 1090 1300 1195 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus
****** 1090 1300 1195 University of Portland
****** 1060 1300 1180 Creighton University
****** 1060 1300 1180 Covenant College
****** 1030 1300 1165 LeTourneau University
****** 1030 1300 1165 Lipscomb University
****** 0990 1300 1145 Iowa State University
****** 1015 1292 1154 Gordon College
top 50 1290 1488 1389 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
****** 1100 1290 1195 University of South Carolina-Columbia
****** 1100 1290 1195 Rollins College
****** 1100 1290 1195 University of North Carolina at Asheville
****** 1090 1290 1190 Gonzaga University
****** 1090 1290 1190 Loyola Marymount University
****** 1080 1290 1185 University of Vermont
****** 1070 1290 1180 Texas A & M University-College Station
****** 1070 1290 1180 Allegheny College
****** 1060 1290 1175 Indiana University-Bloomington
****** 1060 1290 1175 Saint Michael’s College
****** 1040 1290 1165 The University of Tennessee-Knoxville
****** 1040 1290 1165 University of Alabama at Birmingham
****** 1040 1290 1165 University of Missouri-Columbia
****** 1040 1290 1165 New Saint Andrews College
****** 1030 1290 1160 Kettering University
****** 1030 1290 1160 Transylvania University
****** 1020 1290 1155 University of Alabama in Huntsville
****** 0940 1290 1115 University of Mobile
****** 1010 1289 1150 Rockhurst University
****** 1090 1285 1188 Clarkson University
****** 1000 1285 1143 Benedictine College
top 50 1280 1480 1380 University of Michigan-Ann Arbor
top 50 1280 1480 1380 University of Southern California
top 50 1280 1470 1375 Reed College
top 50 1280 1453 1367 Scripps College
****** 1110 1280 1195 Florida State University
****** 1080 1280 1180 Cedarville University
****** 1070 1280 1175 Marquette University
****** 1060 1280 1170 Southwestern University
****** 1060 1280 1170 University of Colorado Boulder
****** 1060 1280 1170 University of Delaware
****** 1060 1280 1170 Ursinus College
****** 1040 1280 1160 Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University-Prescott
****** 1040 1280 1160 University of St Thomas
****** 1040 1280 1160 Washington College
****** 1030 1280 1155 University of Oklahoma-Norman Campus
****** 1005 1280 1143 John Brown University
****** 0990 1280 1135 Concordia College at Moorhead
****** 0980 1275 1128 North Dakota State University-Main Campus
top 50 1270 1480 1375 Case Western Reserve University
top 50 1270 1480 1375 Middlebury College
top 50 1270 1460 1365 Colgate University
top 50 1270 1460 1365 Emory University
top 50 1270 1460 1365 College of William and Mary
top 50 1270 1455 1363 Oberlin College
top 50 1270 1450 1360 Boston College
****** 1090 1270 1180 Texas Christian University
****** 1090 1270 1180 University of Central Florida
****** 1080 1270 1175 Mercer University
****** 1070 1270 1170 University of San Francisco
****** 1070 1270 1170 Belmont University
****** 1070 1270 1170 Stetson University
****** 1060 1270 1165 Auburn University
****** 1060 1270 1165 Berry College
****** 1060 1270 1165 Butler University
****** 1050 1270 1160 Seattle University
****** 1050 1270 1160 Wagner College
****** 1050 1270 1160 Franciscan University of Steubenville
****** 1040 1270 1155 Syracuse University
****** 1040 1270 1155 Birmingham Southern College
****** 1020 1270 1145 Ohio Northern University
****** 1020 1270 1145 Arizona State University-Tempe
****** 1010 1270 1140 Bradley University
****** 0990 1270 1130 University of California-Irvine
****** 0990 1270 1130 Madonna University
****** 0970 1270 1120 Michigan State University
****** 0910 1270 1090 Trinity Christian College
****** 0983 1268 1126 University of Utah
****** 1100 1267 1184 Loyola University Maryland
****** 1040 1265 1153 Drury University
top 50 1260 1460 1360 Georgia Institute of Technology-Main Campus
top 50 1260 1450 1355 University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
****** 1260 1430 1345 Colby College
****** 1080 1260 1170 University of South Florida-Main Campus
****** 1080 1260 1170 Wofford College
****** 1070 1260 1165 College of Charleston
****** 1070 1260 1165 Hofstra University
****** 1060 1260 1160 CUNY Hunter College
****** 1060 1260 1160 SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry
****** 1050 1260 1155 University at Buffalo
****** 1050 1260 1155 Loyola University Chicago
****** 1050 1260 1155 Providence College
****** 1050 1260 1155 DePaul University
****** 1040 1260 1150 Point Loma Nazarene University
****** 1030 1260 1145 Lawrence Technological University
****** 1030 1260 1145 Florida Institute of Technology
****** 1030 1260 1145 Messiah College
****** 1010 1260 1135 Montana State University
****** 1000 1260 1130 University of Cincinnati-Main Campus
****** 0990 1260 1125 The University of Alabama
****** 0900 1260 1080 Central Baptist College
top 50 1250 1500 1375 Grinnell College
top 50 1250 1460 1355 New York University
top 50 1250 1460 1355 University of Virginia-Main Campus
****** 1100 1250 1175 University of North Carolina Wilmington
****** 1070 1250 1160 Christopher Newport University
****** 1050 1250 1150 George Mason University
****** 1050 1250 1150 James Madison University
****** 1050 1250 1150 Virginia Military Institute
****** 1040 1250 1145 Simmons College
****** 1040 1250 1145 Mills College
****** 1030 1250 1140 New Jersey Institute of Technology
****** 1030 1250 1140 University of Houston
****** 1030 1250 1140 Loyola University New Orleans
****** 1020 1250 1135 Bethel University
****** 1020 1250 1135 Louisiana State University and Agricultural & Mechanical College
****** 1020 1250 1135 Colorado State University-Fort Collins
****** 1018 1250 1134 Millsaps College
****** 1010 1250 1130 Warren Wilson College
****** 0990 1250 1120 Harding University
****** 0990 1250 1120 Ohio Wesleyan University
****** 0990 1250 1120 Webster University
****** 0980 1250 1115 University of Detroit Mercy
****** 0970 1250 1110 Mississippi State University
****** 0950 1250 1100 Goshen College
****** 0920 1250 1085 Tennessee Technological University
I don’t know if this is fair to schools that are “ACT schools”. My kids’ undergrad only gets SAT scores from a small % of applicants (23%), but gets ACT scores from 76% of applicants. It’s middle quartiles by ACT is much higher than middle quartiles by SAT.
Ack! Grammar police!! You should have applied to, not at. And many, many of those schools would not be considered “second tier”, many of which would not be considered “safeties” for most anyone.
^^ Yes, there are sometimes issues with the stats with schools that have disparate numbers of ACT/SAT submitting applicants…sometimes there needs to be some fiddling with the ranges because of it. This came up recently in a thread about Northeastern U - they have 25/75 numbers for the ACT that don’t really match up very well with their SAT numbers.
It’s an interesting way of grouping the schools - not very helpful. I don’t think the person interested in Bryn Mawr wants to attend Cal Tech - I may be wrong. I would use it in the opposite direction (if you’re applying to a top 50 school as a reach, what’s a reasonable safety or match) except, again, I don’t know the person who is applying to Cal Tech cares about Brandeis or Bryn Mawr or even Macalester. Maybe Rochester.
At the very least, it a nice list of 295 decent colleges and universities for high school students who ask about safeties and matches and can’t think of a school outside the top 25 or 50.
I have a headache reading the list. Perhaps it could be helpful to highlight the SAT scores of interest in bold. Just a suggestion. I know I’m being demanding.
PINYU was only recently fully merged into NYU, so there may be some data that is still based on its separate existence (as a small engineering-focused school). Of course, its existence as a separate school is no longer relevant, since one has to apply to NYU now (and receive worse financial aid than PINYU used to offer).
DrGoogle, I experimented with various highlighting methods (color, font size, bold, italics) in my original spreadsheet but they disappear when you paste into College Confidential. All those nuances are wiped out.
jym626, “applied at” and “applied to” are both correct usage. Perhaps “applied to” simply sounds better to your ear.
BrownParent, Caltech is a pretty exclusive club. There are schools that overlap with Caltech but my list is restricted to schools with a 75th percentile that overlaps a top 50 school 25th percentile. Using this criterion, even U Rochester, with a very good engineering program, doesn’t overlap with Caltech. My list is designed to reveal an overlap between schools that you might think are in “different leagues” altogether.
The list is interesting but keep in mind that for competitive schools, the scores and grades over a certain criteria become less important than fit. A school may be a good fit for a student with lower grades and scores, but with top grades in classes that are tightly linked to expressed interest, and with ECs that demonstrate a great fit while that school may be a far reach for another student with higher grades and scores but less good a fit. Likewise an exclusive LAC like Williams may be an obvious match (even though people are always saying that such a competitive school is always a reach regardless of how great the credentials, I’m talking relative match and relative reach) for a student whose fit is obvious while it may be a high reach for another student with higher grades and scores but who seems more destined to attend a university.
And a student interested in optics and physics might be rejected from Rochester and accepted at Caltech if the student is interested in theoretical physics, for example. I don’t think that the logic of this list works well because of how important aspects of fit become at the very top schools.
The list is a good contribution, as it takes scattered information and consolidates it. How to best use the information is debatable, but I think that was anticipated by the OP anyway.