ACT scores for highly selective liberal arts colleges

Very important factors considered in admissions include:  Class rank, application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, talent/ability.Composite:  30-33Math:  29-34English:  31-35Very important factors considered in admissions include:  class rank, application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, interview, level of applicant's interest, talent/ability.ACT Composite:  29-31 Very important factors considered in admissions include:  application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, standardized test scores, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, first generation, talent/ability.Composite:  30-34Math:  29-34English:  31-35View the list »
Pomona College is among the most select liberal arts colleges in the country and only admitted about 14% of the students who applied last year.

Higher Education newsletter

What is a good ACT score for a highly selective liberal arts college?

Related topics

Advertisement

First you have to understand the structure of the test, which consists of four basic parts: English, Reading, Mathematics, and Science (Writing is optional but highly recommended). Each section receives a score between 1 (lowest) and 36 (highest). These four scores are then averaged to generate the composite score used by most colleges. The average ACT composite is roughly 20.

Unlike the SAT, achieving a perfect score—or 36—is next to impossible. Out of 1,666,017 members of the high school class of 2012 who took the ACT, only 781 received perfect scores. In Maryland, 6 students out of 13,334 test takers received a composite score of 36, and 7 Virginians out of 21,647 scored a perfect 36. In fact, anyone scoring a 34, 35 or 36 is among the top 1% of test-takers in the country.

With that in mind, the list below shows the middle 50% range of ACT scores for some highly selective liberal arts colleges as based on the 2011 Common Data Set (CDS) information provided by individual schools.

View the list
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, standardized test scores, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, first generation, talent/ability.Composite:  30-34Math:  29-34English:  31-35
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  class rank, application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, interview, level of applicant's interest, talent/ability.ACT Composite:  29-31 
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  Class rank, application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, talent/ability.Composite:  30-33Math:  29-34English:  31-35
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  class rank, academic GPA, rigor of secondary school record.ACT Composite:  29-33
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities.Composite:  28-32Math:  27-32English:  28-33
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, volunteer work.ACT Composite:  29-33
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activitiesACT Composite:  30-33
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  Application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualities, talent/abilityComposite:  32-35Math:  33-35English:  31-35
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:   academic GPA, rigor of secondary school record.Composite:  28-32Math:  27-32English:  29-34
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  class rank, application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, standardized test scores, character/personal qualities, extracurricular activities, talent/abilityComposite:  31-34Math:  31-35English:  31-35
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, character/personal qualitiesComposite:  27-31Math:  25-31English:  28-34
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  rigor of secondary school record, GPA, character/personal qualities, application essay, recommendation(s), class rankACT Composite:  30-34
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  rigor of secondary school record           ACT Composite:  30-33
  • Very important factors considered in admissions include:  application essay, academic GPA, recommendation(s), rigor of secondary school record, standardized test scores, character/personal qualitiesACT Composite:  29-32
  • Very important factors considered in admission:  rigor of secondary school recordComposite:  29-33Math:  27-33English:  29-34
View the list

, DC College Admissions Examiner

Nancy Griesemer is an independent educational consultant based in northern Virginia. A graduate of Penn and Harvard with college counseling certification from UCLA, Nancy launched College Explorations LLC to help high school students and their families navigate the college search and application...

Advertisement

Today's top buzz...