Average SAT Scores At The Top B-Schools

Average SAT Scores At The Top B-Schools by: Marc Ethier on December 13, 2018 | 0 Comments Comments 13,633 Views December 13, 2018For the second year in a row, Washington Universitys Olin Business School was the only school in the PQ for Undergrads ranking with an average SAT score above 1500. File photoTheres Washington Olin, and theres everyone else. For the second year in a row, only one school in our annual  ranking of undergraduate business schools achieved an average SAT score of 1500 among admits — and it was Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School, which recorded a 1507 average score last year and actually improved on it this year with a 1510. Like last year, Washington Olin is the No. 2 school overall in this years ranking.No. 13 Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business followed with 1494. No. 3 University of California-Berkeley Haas School of Business was next with a 1490 average and No. 1 Wharton was fourth, averaging 1486, with Carnegie Mellons Tepper School of Business rounding out the top five at 1473. The average SAT among all participating schools was 1308. A 1500 score is in the  99th percentile of the nationwide average, according to the College Board, whereas a  score of 1400 is in the 97th percentile.Olin’s undergraduate business program is widely recognized as one of the nation’s very best, says  Jennifer LaRusso-Leung, a master consultant with The MBA Exchange and managing consultant for their undergraduate admissions practice, AdvanceAdmissions. The relatively high average SAT score is not surprising when you consider that every BSBA admit at Olin ranked in the top 10% of his or her high school graduating class.Their applicants are smart, highly motivated individuals who realize that having a strong test score is virtually a requirement for admission.MORE THAN HALF OF RANKED SCHOOLS IN SAT 90TH PERCENTILEOf the 82 schools ranked last year by  PoetsQuants, 20 reported average SAT scores of 1400 or higher. This year that number dropped to 19, despite the ranking growing to 88 schools.To finish in the 90th percentile, according to the College Board, applicants must score at least a 1290. More than half (49) of the 88 schools reported at least a 1290. The lowest reported score of ranked schools was Texas Techs Rawls College of Business’ 1093, which is in the 65th percentile nationwide.For percentage of students finishing in the top 10% of their high school class, the University of California-Irvine’s Merage School of Business topped all ranked schools with 98% of their graduating Class of 2016 finishing in the top 10% of their high school class. Wharton followed with 97%. Washington University, Virginia’s McIntire School of Commerce, and Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business all notched scores of 90% or higher in the category.Among all schools, the average students finishing in the top 10% of their high sch ool class was 47%.DEATH OF SAT GREATLY EXAGGERATEDIn 2016, SAT went from 2400-point test to 1600-point test. Long before then, school officials, students, and observers all were proclaiming the impending death of the test. It was imminently to be replaced by the ACT; some schools would do away with standardized tests altogether. But a funny thing happened on the way to the SATs funeral: The corpse came back to life.  In 2018, 2.1 million SAT test takers in the class of 2018 took the new SAT, a 25% increase over the class of 2017.Expanded fee waivers are one reason more people are taking the test; a reported 21% used a waiver to take the test this year. Another big reason is  SAT School Day, which continues to grow rapidly in U.S. secondary schools. According to the College Board, about 460,000 students in the class of 2017 (or 27% of SAT test takers in that class) took the SAT on a school day — but almost 780,000 students in the class of 2018 — 36% — took th e SAT on a school day.College applicants come from a broad range of high schools with varying levels of academic rigor, says LaRusso-Leung, a former associate director of admissions at Columbia Business School. So, the admissions staff uses the SAT and ACT as a common denominator and baseline that facilitates the analysis and comparison of all candidates. These two tests are more similar than different, but it’s not easy to predict which one is the better option for a given applicant. That’s why we recommend taking practice tests and getting feedback from a skilled tutor who’s familiar with both the SAT and ACT.ROBUST ECONOMY MEANS INCREASED APPETITE FOR RECRUITINGHeightened use of the SAT is just one sign of the overall health of undergraduate business education,  LaRusso-Leung tells PoetsQuants for Undergrads. A healthy economy is one factor driving the growth, she says.â€Å"Interest among high school students and, more importantly, their parents in underg raduate business degrees continues to drive growth in the volume of applications targeting those programs, she says. Candidly, there’s no end in sight for this growth. There are two additional factors that encourage more applicants to seek BBA degrees. First, the U.S. economy remains robust, so major companies have an increased appetite for recruiting and hiring fresh grads from top business schools.Second, the simultaneous softening of application volume for MBA degrees — for even some of the highest-ranked MBA programs — motivates leading business schools that offer both BBA and MBA programs to tap into the strong demand by attracting and enrolling more of the former. Simply stated, that’s where the action is.†The 2018 Special Report On Undergraduate Business EducationRanking The Best Undergraduate Business Schools In The U.S.How We Crunched The Numbers To Come Up With Our Ranking2018 Report Card: How Business Majors Grade Their Own Undergraduate ProgramsAcceptance Rates For The Best Undergraduate Business ProgramsAverage SAT Scores At The Top Undergraduate Business Schools Page 1 of 212 » Average SAT Scores At The Top B-Schools Average SAT Scores At The Top B-Schools by: Nathan Allen on December 14, 2016 | 0 Comments Comments 21,603 Views December 14, 2016Studying at the NYU Stern School of Business. Ethan Baron photoDespite what many college admissions offices across the country might say  about holistic approaches to admissions decisions, one hard truth remains: Standardized tests are still a major factor. According to the most current  College Board data available, more than 1.7 million students graduating high school in the class of 2015 took the SAT exam. Despite its  flaws and potential to perpetuate elitist institutions, the SAT  remains the most widely used  indicator of college readiness and often serves as a calibration for differing high school GPA weights and leadership activities. And while admissions directors at some of the countrys most elite universities claim the exam  plays a small role in the decisions coming from their offices, there are very strong correlations between elite schools and the average SAT scores of their incoming classes.Data gathered for the  PoetsQuants ranking of the countrys best undergraduate business programs reveals more of the same. In fact, the top three schools all enrolled classes with the highest average SAT scores. The Washington University in St. Louis Olin Business School had the highest average score at 1480 (out of the 1600 scale, including critical reading and math sections). Olin, which finished first in the overall ranking, was followed by the University of Notre Dames Mendoza College of Business, which notched an average of 1460. The University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School had the next highest average at 1457. Mendoza and Wharton finished second and third, respectively, in the overall rankings.Of the 10 schools with the highest average SAT for its entering class of 2016, seven were also in the top 10 of  PoetsQuants ranking. Every top 15 school in the overall rankings —with the exception of  the University of Minnesotas Carlson School of Management — had an SAT average in the top 20 of the 50 schools to be ranked. Indeed, for the vast majority,  the road to an elite undergraduate business education still requires a stellar SAT score.HIGH OR LOW SAT SCORES NOT A MAKE OR BREAK METRIC IN OVERALL RANKINGSBased on data published two years ago,  PoetsQuants was able to track six-year trends in average SAT scores for 37 of the top 50 schools. And the trends show that 30 of the 37 schools have increased the average SAT score of their incoming class since 2011. But no school increased the score more than Southern Methodist Universitys Cox School of Business. In the past six years, the Cox School has raised its average SAT 170 points, from 1280 in 2011 to 1450 this past fall. The other schools to see triple-digit increases over the past six years were Boston Universitys Questrom School of Business (from 1289 to 1408, for 119 points) and Northeastern Universitys DAmore McKi m School of Business (from 1329 to 1433, for 104 points). The University of Massachusetts Isenberg School of Management just missed the 100 mark, elevating their average SAT by 96 points, from 1209 to 1305.At the other end, no other school decreased its average more than the University of North Carolinas Kenan-Flagler Business School, which lowered its average by 42 points, from 1343 to 1301. Meanwhile, the University of Virginias McIntire School of Commerce dropped 38 points, from 1384 to 1346. The University of Washingtons Foster School of Business fell  36 points, from 1275 to 1239. No school enrolled a lower average SAT than Rutgers Business School-Newark, at 1043.While the SAT played a role in PQs  overall ranking, a few schools were able to overcome lower scores and still rank highly. Minnesotas Carlson is the most extreme example. Carlson dropped its average SAT by 17 points, from 1297 in 2011 to 1280 this fall — good enough for 30th on the average SAT list. Yet Ca rlson was able to catapult to 12th in the overall ranking thanks to high alumni scores and solid employment placements. Brigham Young Universitys Marriott School of Management also 33rd on the SAT list, at 1263, but rode  a wave of positive alumni feedback and employment rates and placed 20th in the overall rankings. Meantime, schools like SMUs Cox School and Carnegie Mellons Tepper School both placed in the top five on average SAT scores but finished outside of the top 15 in the overall rankings. For Tepper, it was a question of  low alumni ratings; for Cox, it was lower alumni and employment ratings.(See the next page for all average SAT scores.) Page 1 of 212 »