Have you dreamed about attending Harvard, Yale, or Columbia since you were in middle school? Are Dartmouth or Princeton at the top of your college list? 

If you have your sights set on an Ivy League school, you are probably already aware of just how much hard work it will take to get accepted. You need strong essays, a stellar GPA, an impressive list of extracurricular activities, and of course, a good ACT score.

But what exactly constitutes a “good” ACT score? 

Many high school students wonder what ACT score is good enough for them to get into an Ivy League school. Often, these students believe that earning a perfect score on the ACT is the only way to impress Ivy League admittance boards.

However, this is not necessarily true. While it certainly won’t hurt to earn a perfect score, there are different criteria that students should consider when they determine their target score.

The most important factor that students need to keep in mind is their percentile score.

What is a percentile score?

Your percentile score shows how your ACT score compares to other students who took the test. If your score falls within the 50th percentile, for example, it means that you scored higher than about half of the students who took the ACT. If your score is in the 25th percentile, it means that you scored higher than a quarter of other students.

To stand out among other applicants when applying to competitive Ivy League schools, you want your percentile score to be as high as possible when compared to other applicants.

While you will significantly boost your chances of admission to any school if your ACT score is in the 99th percentile for each of the Ivy League schools on your list,  as a rule of thumb, you want to make sure your ACT score falls within at least the 75th percentile. This will mean that your score is higher than 75% of other applicants, which will make your application more competitive.

ACT score ranges

To help you determine the ACT score you need to aim for when you take the test, here are the ACT score ranges that make up the 75th- 99th percentile for all eight Ivy League schools:

School	75th -99th Percentile ACT Score Range	Average ACT Score
Brown University	35-36	34
Columbia University	35-36	34
Cornell University	35-36	34
Dartmouth College	35-36	33
Harvard University	35-36	34
University of Pennsylvania	35-36	34
Princeton University	35-36	34
Yale University	35-36	34

As you can see, most of these colleges have the same mean ACT score and ACT score range to fall within the top 75% or higher of all applicants.

While you don’t need to earn a perfect score, you’ll need to get pretty close. If you want to be above average, you will need to aim for an ACT score of 35 or above. This means you’ll need to dedicate countless hours to studying for your ACT.

Preparing for the ACT

If you want to increase your chances of earning a 35 or above on the ACT, you need to spend months studying for the test and using every resource available to help you prepare.

One of the best resources you can use is Prep Expert.

We offer ACT prep courses that have helped over 50,000 students earn scores that helped them get into their dream colleges. Our classes are led by experienced, master instructors who know the ins and outs of the ACT and how to teach students both ACT content and strategies. When you take an ACT prep course, you will learn over 100 strategies that you can use on test day as well as tips for overcoming your weaknesses on the test.

In addition to ACT prep courses, we also offer private ACT tutoring. You can work one-on-one with expert instructors who scored in the 99th percentile on their own ACT tests and have the expertise necessary to help you reach your target score. When you work with a tutor, you can move at your own pace and have an instructor walking you through each step of the process so that you can be confident you’ll earn a good score on test day.

Learn more about how Prep Expert can equip you to earn a score that will wow Ivy League admissions officers and make your application stand out above the competition when you visit our website.