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I have read that several of the ivy league schools have SAT averages of 1400-1500.
But I've heard people here say scores of 1400, 1450, and even 1480 are abnormally low. What are the actual averages and how are they determined?
Thank You!

By Wade Leahy on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 06:04 am: Edit

Check the schools' websites for that info. They always have profiles of classes.

By vp on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 11:13 am: Edit

ok 1480 isnt abnormally low......the ppl who say so are just showin off thier own scores of 1580 or so.......

By frogbert on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 03:07 pm: Edit

i'm too lazy to check, but here are my estimates for the average SAT scores of matriculating students:

Harvard-1500 Princeton-1490 Yale-1460 Dartmouth-1410 Columbia-1400 Penn-1390 Brown-1380 Cornell-1370

the reality is most people need SAT scores well above the school's average. to be seriously considered with a score far below the average, you'd have to have a phenomenal talent - something that the school seeks.

By Jim on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 04:09 pm: Edit

Columbia is actually higher than Dartmouth IMO.

By anonymous on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 04:19 pm: Edit

None of the ivy leagues have averages of 1500 and up since they admit people with 1200 and sometimes 1100 scores. The highest SAT average is 1508 at CalTech. Check Princeton Review.

By .... on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 04:25 pm: Edit

Columbia is 1394

Dartmoth is 1415

Cornell is 1360

By pranaboy on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 05:49 pm: Edit

Thanks for helping me out!

By John on Wednesday, January 01, 2003 - 06:04 pm: Edit

I think that median SAT score would be much more important than average, since you will get a lot more kids with low and high getting accepted. Any Ivy will accept at least a few 1200 range scores, but with that like 5 1600s would be needed for like 1450 average.

By Icee on Thursday, January 02, 2003 - 08:47 pm: Edit

The truth is, the ranges for the best IVY League schools are always around 1300-1500. So don't feel like you have to get a 1600, because it might not happen anyway.

By cfbvgfc vd on Friday, January 03, 2003 - 01:54 pm: Edit

Cornell's average SAT is 1360 because they put a heavy emphasis on your personality. If you walk around campus, you will find very few nerdy people there. They reject a lot of people with 1500's and 1600 SAT scores if they have no personality.

By Herbert Hoover on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 02:15 am: Edit

Actually, cornell's average SAT is so low not because of any personality ••••••••. If they truly cared so much about personality, interviews would be common. They aren't. The reason cornell has such low scores is because of the infamous School of Hotel Administration, and to a lesser extent, the Architecture School. These both have much, much lower requirements to get in, and they are not small. The rest of the school makes fun of these students.

By jp on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 02:43 am: Edit

SAT averages for the IVIES are HIGHER than printed for most people to get in. Admissions officers look at the WHOLE picture and not just test scores.

That being said, if you see an Ivy with a published "average" of 1400...know that the real average for merit based students are much higher than that, possibly closer to the 1450, 1500 range. Why? Because we all know that undeserving URMs with low, low test scores get in...which drags the averages down.

Athletes and legacies also score somewhat lower.

So, if you're a regular white/Asian applicant, you need to be better than the published averages.

By cornell on Thursday, January 09, 2003 - 06:26 pm: Edit

Herbert Hoover, interviews at Cornell are not only common, they are REQUIRED. Yes, it is true that the hotel school brings down the average SAT score, but the hotel school also looks at personality more than any of the other colleges.

By anon on Monday, January 27, 2003 - 07:46 pm: Edit

I am an administrator at one of the Ivies, and I just have to point this out... Here's what you may not know. Brown's ave SAT score appears low (1380?) compared to some other Ivies, but most "lay people" will find that Brown is probably much harder to get into than most other Ivies. Why? Brown takes a lot of legacies (i.e., offspring of alums), who tend to have lower test scores but are frequently willing to contribute LOTS of money. The flipside of the coin? Well, "regular" kids might have a better chance of getting into other Ivies that ostensibly care less about pleasing their rich alums (e.g., Columbia, Cornell, Penn etc.).

Why does the Big Three (Harvard, Yale and Princeton) typically refuse to disclose their AVERAGE test scores??? Guess. Their #s would be surprisingly (and deceivingly) low if AVERAGED, due to these legacies (but not necessarily so if one takes the MEDIAN or %ile figures, which they do frequently disclose).

My advice: Just apply. You can't speculate whether you'd get in or not, even if you have a perfect 1600.