A 1540 is in the 99th percentile: it beats about 99 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 371 of them and inside the middle 50% at 29.
98th–99th percentile: in range at most of the most selective colleges.
A 1540 is in the 99th percentile. It's at or above the middle 50% range at the large majority of colleges, and inside or just below the range at the most selective ones.
At Ivy League and similar colleges a 1540 is a competitive score, but it can still sit below the median there. It won't hold an application back, and it won't carry one either.
For scale: a 1490 is the 97th percentile and a 1590 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 |
|---|---|---|
| University of Southern California | 1410–1540 | 13% |
| Emory University | 1420–1540 | 13% |
| Vassar College | 1420–1540 | 20% |
| Hamilton College | 1410–1540 | 14% |
| Wellesley College | 1400–1540 | 16% |
| Boston College | 1420–1530 | 19% |
| Case Western Reserve University | 1410–1530 | 30% |
| Colby College | 1400–1530 | 9% |
| College | Middle 50% | Admit |
|---|---|---|
| New York University | 1450–1570 | 13% |
| Northeastern University | 1430–1550 | 18% |
| Cornell University | 1450–1560 | 9% |
| Columbia University | 1470–1570 | 4% |
| Harvard University | 1480–1580 | 4% |
| University of Pennsylvania | 1480–1570 | 6% |
| Stanford University | 1470–1570 | 4% |
| Duke University | 1470–1570 | 6% |
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 1540 can read differently for an engineering program than for an English major.
| Profile | Reading and Writing | Math |
|---|---|---|
| Even split | 770 | 770 |
Only if your list leans heavily toward the most selective colleges, where a 1540 can be below the median, and you have time to prepare for a realistic jump of 30–50 points.
Retake if:
Keep your 1540 if:
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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.