United States Public Colleges Ranked by Highest SAT Score

Below is a list of the 482 public colleges in the United States with the highest SAT Score for incoming freshmen. University of Virginia Main Campus leads the list with an average SAT Score of 1475. 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 Public Colleges Ranked by Highest SAT Score
College	Average SAT Score
Ohio State University Main Campus Columbus, Ohio	1395
North Carolina State University at Raleigh Raleigh, North Carolina	1385
The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas	1380
University of California San Diego La Jolla, California	1375
University of Georgia Athens, Georgia	1375
University of Pittsburgh Pittsburgh Campus Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania	1370
University of Vermont Burlington, Vermont	1365
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, Virginia	1365
University of California Santa Barbara Santa Barbara, California	1345
Florida State University Tallahassee, Florida	1340
Purdue University Main Campus West Lafayette, Indiana	1340
University of Colorado Boulder Boulder, Colorado	1335
United States Air Force Academy USAF Academy, Colorado	1335
New Jersey Institute of Technology Newark, New Jersey	1335
University of Alabama at Birmingham Birmingham, Alabama	1330
University of California Irvine Irvine, California	1330
University of Maryland Baltimore County Baltimore, Maryland	1330
Penn State Main Campus University Park, Pennsylvania	1330

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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.