SAT and ACT Scores for Admission to Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges

If you're considering a top public liberal arts college, you're most likely going to need SAT scores or ACT scores that are at least a little above average. The tables below can help you see how you compare to other applicants. You'll see that New College of Florida, the Honors College of Florida's public university system, has the most selective admissions.  The tables below present SAT scores and ACT scores for the middle 50% of students enrolled in these top public liberal arts colleges from across the country.

If your scores are within the ranges (or above the ranges), you are on target for admission to the school.

Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges SAT Score Comparison (mid 50%)
	SAT Scores						GPA-SAT-ACT Admissions Scattergram
	Reading		Math		Writing
	25%	75%	25%	75%	25%	75%
College of Charleston	520	610	510	600	-	-	see graph
The College of New Jersey	550	640	570	670	550	650	see graph
New College of Florida	610	720	560	660	570	670	see graph
Ramapo College	490	590	500	610	-	-	see graph
St. Mary's College of Maryland	530	640	500	620	-	-	see graph
SUNY Geneseo	550	640	550	650	-	-	see graph
Truman State University	580	730	560	680	-	-	see graph
University of Mary Washington	510	620	490	590	490	600	see graph
University of Minnesota-Morris	500	660	510	640	490	620	see graph
UNC Asheville	540	640	520	610	510	610	see graph
Learn what these SAT numbers mean

If you click on the "see graph" links to the right of each row, you'll find a handy visual guide for the grades and standardized test scores of students who were accepted, rejected, and waitlisted at each school.

You may find that some students with high grades were waitlisted or rejected from the school, and/or that students with lower scores (lower than the ranges listed here) were admitted. This is because all of these colleges have a holistic admissions process.

All ten of these colleges will accept SAT scores or ACT scores, so feel free to submit numbers from your best exam.

Below is the ACT version of the table:

Top Public Liberal Arts Colleges ACT Score Comparison (mid 50%)
	ACT Scores
	Composite		English		Math
	25%	75%	25%	75%	25%	75%
College of Charleston	23	28	23	29	21	26
The College of New Jersey	26	30	25	30	-	-
New College of Florida	27	31	27	33	24	28
Ramapo College	20	26	-	-	-	-
St. Mary's College of Maryland	22	28	19	27	21	29
SUNY Geneseo	25	29	-	-	-	-
Truman State University	25	30	24	32	23	28
University of Mary Washington	22	27	21	28	20	26
University of Minnesota-Morris	22	28	21	28	22	27
UNC Asheville	23	28	23	29	21	27
Learn what these ACT numbers mean

It's important to remember that standardized test scores are just one part of your college application. Perfect scores don't guarantee admission if other parts of your application are weak, and less-than-ideal scores don't need to be the end of your college dreams. Since these schools practice holistic admissions, admissions officers will also want to see a strong academic record, a winning essay, meaningful extracurricular activities and good letters of recommendation.

Another important piece of information to keep in mind is that since these schools are state-funded, out-of-state applicants might need scores even higher than these ranges. The schools tend to give preference to in-state applicants.

Data from the National Center for Educational Statistics