United States Private Colleges Ranked by Highest ACT Score

Below is a list of the 708 private colleges in the United States with the highest ACT Score for incoming freshmen. California Institute of Technology leads the list with an average ACT Score of 35. Alternatively, check out the SAT version of these rankings.

The ACT is a standardized test used by colleges to evaluate applicants. It is not a guarantee of success in college, but it is a strong indicator of academic potential.

List of United States Private Colleges Ranked by Highest ACT Score
College	Average ACT Score
Wellesley College Wellesley, Massachusetts	34
Williams College Williamstown, Massachusetts	34
Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, Missouri	34
Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire	34
Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey	34
Columbia University in the City of New York New York, New York	34
Cornell University Ithaca, New York	34
Hamilton College Clinton, New York	34
New York University New York, New York	34
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York	34
Duke University Durham, North Carolina	34
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	34
Haverford College Haverford, Pennsylvania	34
Swarthmore College Swarthmore, Pennsylvania	34
Brown University Providence, Rhode Island	34
Vanderbilt University Nashville, Tennessee	34
Rice University Houston, Texas	34
Middlebury College Middlebury, Vermont	34

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This list is updated annually based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last updated: August 2026

Data source: IPEDS 2025 survey for academic year 2024/2025 - National Center for Education Statistics.