A 1480 is in the 97th percentile: it beats about 97 of every 100 SAT takers. Among the 400 most-applied-to colleges that report SAT ranges, it's at or above the 75th percentile at 333 of them, inside the middle 50% at 63 and just below the 25th percentile at 4.
96th–97th percentile: competitive at most selective colleges.
A 1480 is in the 97th percentile. It's at or above the middle 50% range at most selective colleges and flagship universities.
At the most selective colleges, where the middle 50% often starts near 1500, a 1480 can sit below the range. There it's a reach score that the rest of the application has to support.
For scale: a 1430 is the 95th percentile and a 1530 is the 99th. Check your own estimate with the SAT score calculator, or any score's rank with the SAT percentile calculator.
The middle 50% is the range between the 25th and 75th percentile SAT scores of a college's first-year students. Above the 75th percentile, your score is a strength; inside the range, it's typical; below the 25th, it's a reach that the rest of the application has to make up for.
| College | Middle 50% | Admit |
|---|---|---|
| Fordham University | 1300–1480 | 58% |
| Stony Brook University- SUNY | 1300–1480 | 48% |
| Macalester College | 1340–1480 | 31% |
| Babson College | 1330–1480 | 25% |
| University of Florida | 1300–1470 | 30% |
| University of Washington | 1200–1470 | 53% |
| Rutgers University–New Brunswick | 1240–1470 | 68% |
| Binghamton University- SUNY | 1310–1470 | 44% |
| College | Middle 50% | Admit |
|---|---|---|
| New York University | 1450–1570 | 13% |
| University of Michigan - Ann Arbor | 1340–1520 | 20% |
| Boston University | 1360–1520 | 19% |
| Northeastern University | 1430–1550 | 18% |
| University of Southern California | 1410–1540 | 13% |
| Cornell University | 1450–1560 | 9% |
| University of Texas - Austin | 1230–1500 | 29% |
| Columbia University | 1470–1570 | 4% |
| College | Middle 50% | Admit |
|---|---|---|
| Washington University in St. Louis | 1490–1570 | 13% |
| Rice University | 1490–1570 | 9% |
| University of Chicago | 1510–1580 | 6% |
| Massachusetts Institute of Technology | 1510–1580 | 4% |
Ranges are each college's most recently reported middle 50% for students who submitted scores, from our college database. University of California and Cal State campuses are left out because they don't consider SAT scores. Look up any college with the college SAT lookup.
The SAT reports Reading and Writing and Math separately, 200–800 each. Colleges see both, so the same 1480 can read differently for an engineering program than for an English major.
| Profile | Reading and Writing | Math |
|---|---|---|
| Even split | 740 | 740 |
| Reading and Writing–leaning | 790 | 690 |
| Math-leaning | 690 | 790 |
Worth considering if your list includes the most selective colleges. Moving into the 1500s puts you inside their range; for most other colleges a 1480 already does the job.
Retake if:
Keep your 1480 if:
← How good is a 1470? · How good is a 1490? →
Percentiles come from the same SAT percentile table as our percentile calculator. SAT® is a trademark registered by the College Board, which is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, this page.