Schools by U.S. News Selectivity Rank

Applying to College
41

Irrespective of the dubious wording, USN lists the scores for matriculated students.

42

Caltech students have always had the highest test scores by some meaningful margin (going back at least 40 years). Comparison of test scores between Caltech and UChicago is problematic in another aspect. UChicago is test optional so scores of its lower scoring students are likely not included.

Test scores are obviously only one measure of applicant pools. For a school like Caltech, due to self-selection, most applicants likely have test scores in excess of 1550 SAT or 35 ACT, so scores aren’t meaningful measures. It’d be interesting to see what happens in the next two admission cycles as Caltech becomes test blind.

43

Harvey Mudd: 33–35

Pomona: 32–35
Williams: 32–35

Hamilton: 32–34
Haverford: 32–34
Swarthmore: 31–35
Washington & Lee: 32–34

Amherst: 31–34
Barnard: 31–34
Bowdoin: 31–34

Sources: CDS (Amherst and Bowdoin) and IPEDS (all others).

44

Perhaps less than one may expect, since anyone with a reasonable chance of admission to Caltech would show multiple indicators of academic strength across the board (especially, but not exclusively, in math and science); for such applicants, a high end SAT or ACT score would not help distinguish between them.

45

As mentioned earlier, USNWR says that it’s test score metrics is a weighted average of the ACT and SAT, with weightings based on portion of students taking the respective exams. A list of highest scoring colleges using this methodology, with scores based on IPEDS listing is below. The number in parenthesis is the combined SAT-ACT score with weighting based on portion of students taking tests. Conversion is based on concordance tables. Note how closely clustered this combined score is outside of the the top 3. For example, the 21 point gap between #2 MIT (1540) and #3 Harvey Mudd (1519) is similar distance to the 22 point gap between #3 Harvey Mudd (1519) and #19 Stanford (1497).

Highest Test Score Colleges: Weighted SAT/ACT, Similar to USNWR

  1. Caltech (1552): 35-36 ACT, 790-800 Math, 740-760 EBRW
    – Gap –
  2. MIT (1540): 34-36 ACT, 780-800 Math, 730-770 EBRW
    – Large Gap –
  3. Harvey Mudd (1519): 33-35 ACT, 780-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  4. Chicago (1518): 33-35 ACT, 770-800 Math, 730-770 EBRW
  5. Olin (1516): 34-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  6. Rice (1513): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  7. Duke (1512): 33-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  8. Harvard (1509.2): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  9. Princeton (1508.9): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
    10… Yale (1508.6): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  10. WUSTL (1507.0): 33-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 720-760 EBRW
  11. CMU (1506.8): 33-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  12. Johns Hopkins (1506.3): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-760 EBRW
  13. Vanderibilt (1504.9): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-760 EBRW
  14. Penn (1503.1): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  15. Columbia (1503.0): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  16. Brown (1502.9): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  17. Northwestern (1497.3): 33-35 ACT, 740-790 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  18. Stanford (1496.5): 32-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  19. Dartmouth (1493.6): 32-35 ACT, 730-790 Math, 710-770 EBRW
46

@Data10 Are those weighted averages for the admitted students or the enrolled students?

47

As an aspect to consider, USN converts these scores to percentiles, which could have a homogenizing effect, especially for schools with scores at or near the 99th percentile.

48

If I convert to percentiles and round to nearest integer, I get the following. Caltech and MIT are at 99th percentile. There is a 12-way tie at 98th percentile.

Highest Test Score Colleges: Weighted SAT/ACT Percentiles

  1. Caltech (99): 35-36 ACT, 790-800 Math, 740-760 EBRW
  2. MIT (99): 34-36 ACT, 780-800 Math, 730-770 EBRW
  1. Chicago (98): 33-35 ACT, 770-800 Math, 730-770 EBRW
  2. Harvey Mudd (98): 33-35 ACT, 780-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  3. Duke (98): 33-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  4. Vanderibilt (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-760 EBRW
  5. Rice (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  6. Olin (98): 34-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  7. Yale (98): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 720-770 EBRW
  8. Princeton (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  9. Harvard (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  10. Johns Hopkins (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 710-760 EBRW
  11. Penn (98): 33-35 ACT, 750-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  12. Northwestern (98): 33-35 ACT, 740-790 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  13. Brown (97): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  14. CMU (97): 33-35 ACT, 760-800 Math, 700-760 EBRW
  15. Columbia (97): 33-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  16. Dartmouth (97): 32-35 ACT, 730-790 Math, 710-770 EBRW
  17. Stanford (97): 32-35 ACT, 740-800 Math, 700-770 EBRW
  18. Notre Dame (97): 32-35 ACT, 720-790 Math, 680-760 EBRW
  19. Williams (97): 32-35 ACT, 710-790 Math, 700-760 EBRW
49

Selectivity Ranks for Remaining Schools for Which USN Provides Information

National Liberal Arts Colleges

  1. Bates
  2. Bryn Mawr
  3. Macalester
  4. Scripps
  5. Franklin & Marshall
  6. Denison
  7. Kenyon
  8. Mount Holyoke
  9. URichmond
  10. Oberlin
  11. Union
  12. Bucknell
  13. Occidental
  14. Whitman
  15. U.S. Air Force Academy
  16. U.S. Naval Academy
  17. Lafayette
  18. Dickinson
  19. Soka
  20. U.S. Military Academy
  21. Skidmore
  22. DePauw
  23. Holy Cross
  24. Pitzer
  25. Sewanee
  26. Trinity (CT)
  27. Thomas Aquinas
  28. Berea

National Universities

  1. Cornell
  2. Emory
  3. U.Va.
  4. UCLA
  5. Tufts
  6. UCSB
  7. NYU
  8. UCSD
  9. Case Western Reserve
  10. UFlorida
  11. UNC–CH
  12. USC (CA)
  13. UTexas (Austin)
  14. Tulane
  15. Wake Forest
  16. William & Mary
  17. Boston College
  18. UMichigan–A²
  19. Northeastern
  20. UCD
  21. Brandeis
  22. UCI
  23. Boston University
  24. Lehigh
  25. UGeorgia
  26. UMiami
  27. UW–Madison
  28. UIllinois (U-C)
  29. Pepperdine
  30. URochester

Gaps: N/A

50

Correction to reply #48, no gap should appear in the NU list between the schools tied at #28 and #30.

51

High selectivity rates and SAT scores definitely go hand in hand. My guess is the ones at the top send marketing to many just below their numbers in the hope that they will reach for the “prize,” raising their application numbers. Every one of the schools on the top lists sent S21 marketing materials and he is at or just just below their 25%. He did reach for a few anyway…lol.

52

“Georgia tech acceptance rate is much higher than Tufts”

However, GT has 3 times the undergrad enrollment.

So divide GT’s 18% by 3 or mult Tufts’ 15% by 3.

Additionally GT has higher test scores than Tufts…

Top 500:
https://www.stateuniversity.com/rank/sat_75pctl_rank.html

53

In consideration of a few of the comments on this thread, note that rank, as a statistical tool, merely represents a form of data transformation. Although ranking can make data more accessible for a value-based interpretation, ranking by itself is value neutral.

54

I thought Chicago was fully test optional. And it’s only reporting submitted or reported. What about those who truly have no scores to submit.

55

Re #53, U.S. News allows test optional colleges a wide margin when considering their scores, stating “if test scores reported represent less than 75% of the students entering, the value was discontinued by 15%.” Regarding the University of Chicago specifically, it placed similarly by standardized scoring prior to becoming a test optional school: https://www.businessinsider.com/the-610-smartest-colleges-in-america-2015-9.