What SAT score do you need for Northwestern University?

Among enrolled students who submitted an SAT score, the middle 50 percent scored 740 to 770 in Reading and Writing and 770 to 800 in Math. Note that only 50 percent of enrolled students submitted an SAT score, so that range describes about half the class.

What ACT score do you need for Northwestern University?

The middle 50 percent of enrolled students who submitted an ACT scored 33 to 35 on the composite. 29 percent of enrolled students submitted an ACT score.

Why is there no single SAT total range on this page?

Because neither of the sources publishes one. The 25th percentile of a total is not the sum of the two section 25th percentiles, so adding them together would overstate the spread. The sections are shown separately, which is what the data actually supports.

How selective is Northwestern University?

The reported admission rate is 7.7 percent. Admission rates and score ranges describe different things, and a score inside the published range is not by itself a prediction of admission.

How current is this data?

Score ranges come from the College Scorecard release of 2026-08, covering the Fall 2024 cohort, released 2026-06-10. Submission percentages come from IPEDS, Fall 2023 cohort. The two have different vintages and are labelled separately on this page.

Northwestern University SAT and ACT scores

Evanston, Illinois Private nonprofit 9,201 undergraduates

Read this first

50% submitted an SAT score

Every range below describes only those students, which is about half the class. That is 1,063 enrolled students. Students who submit scores are the ones who chose to, so the range is not a picture of the whole class.

SAT Reading and Writing

740-770

middle 50%, median 760

97 to 99 percentile nationally

SAT Math

770-800

middle 50%, median 780

97 to 99+ percentile nationally

ACT composite

33-35

middle 50%, median 34, 29% submitted

Admission rate

7.7%

reported to IPEDS

How to read these numbers

The middle 50 percent range means a quarter of submitting students scored below the lower number and a quarter scored above the higher one. Being inside the range does not predict admission, and being below it does not rule it out.

Why there is no total score range here

Adding the two section ranges together would give roughly 1510 to 1570, and you will see that figure on other sites. It is not a real composite range.

The 25th percentile of a total is not the sum of the two section 25th percentiles, because the same student is rarely at the 25th percentile in both sections at once. The true composite band is narrower. Neither College Scorecard nor IPEDS publishes one, so this page shows the sections separately rather than inventing a total.

The ACT range in SAT terms

Using the official 2018 concordance, an ACT 33 concords to roughly SAT 1460 and an ACT 35 to roughly SAT 1540. That comes with published standard errors of plus or minus 2 ACT points and plus or minus 80 SAT points, and the table predates both current tests. The converter explains the caveats.

Working out where you stand

If you have a practice test rather than an official score, the SAT score calculator converts it using that test's own official table, and the score needed calculator works backwards from a target to the raw score it takes.

For what these numbers mean in national terms rather than at one institution, see the percentile tables and what counts as a good score.

Whether scores are required here

This page does not state Northwestern University's current testing policy. The policy field in the federal data is self-reported and lags real changes, sometimes by a full admissions cycle, and several universities have reinstated requirements recently.

Check Northwestern University's own admissions pages for the cycle you are applying in. Their site is www.northwestern.edu. Our guide covers the current landscape, with the same warning.

Sources

Score ranges and admission rate: College Scorecard, Most Recent Institution-Level Data, US Department of Education. Fall 2024 cohort, released 2026-06-10. Retrieved 2026-08-27.
Score submission percentages: IPEDS Admissions (ADM) 2023, NCES. Fall 2023 cohort. Retrieved 2026-08-27. College Scorecard does not carry this field, which is why the two are joined.

The two sources have different vintages, one year apart. That is stated rather than smoothed over, because a submission percentage from a different cohort than the score range is a real limitation of the joined data.

Common questions

What SAT score do you need for Northwestern University?: Among enrolled students who submitted an SAT score, the middle 50 percent scored 740 to 770 in Reading and Writing and 770 to 800 in Math. Note that only 50 percent of enrolled students submitted an SAT score, so that range describes about half the class.
What ACT score do you need for Northwestern University?: The middle 50 percent of enrolled students who submitted an ACT scored 33 to 35 on the composite. 29 percent of enrolled students submitted an ACT score.
Why is there no single SAT total range on this page?: Because neither of the sources publishes one. The 25th percentile of a total is not the sum of the two section 25th percentiles, so adding them together would overstate the spread. The sections are shown separately, which is what the data actually supports.
How selective is Northwestern University?: The reported admission rate is 7.7 percent. Admission rates and score ranges describe different things, and a score inside the published range is not by itself a prediction of admission.
How current is this data?: Score ranges come from the College Scorecard release of 2026-08, covering the Fall 2024 cohort, released 2026-06-10. Submission percentages come from IPEDS, Fall 2023 cohort. The two have different vintages and are labelled separately on this page.

Last updated August 27, 2026