United States Private Colleges Ranked by Highest SAT Score

Below is a list of the 783 private colleges in the United States with the highest SAT Score for incoming freshmen. California Institute of Technology leads the list with an average SAT Score of 1555. Alternatively, check out the ACT version of these rankings.

The SAT 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 SAT Score
College	Average SAT Score
California Institute of Technology Pasadena, California	1555
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, Massachusetts	1550
University of Chicago Chicago, Illinois	1545
Johns Hopkins University Baltimore, Maryland	1545
Harvard University Cambridge, Massachusetts	1545
Princeton University Princeton, New Jersey	1545
Columbia University in the City of New York New York, New York	1545
Brown University Providence, Rhode Island	1545
Stanford University Stanford, California	1545
Northwestern University Evanston, Illinois	1540
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	1540
Rice University Houston, Texas	1540
Harvey Mudd College Claremont, California	1535
Amherst College Amherst, Massachusetts	1535
Washington University in St Louis St. Louis, Missouri	1535
Dartmouth College Hanover, New Hampshire	1535
Cornell University Ithaca, New York	1535
Duke University Durham, North Carolina	1535

Search and filter all 783 colleges

This list is updated annually based on the latest data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Last updated: March 15, 2026

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