Your GPA and your SAT/ACT scores are two of the main factors colleges look at when deciding whether to offer you admission. In fact, grades and test scores together dwarf other factors such as extracurricular activities in determining the types of schools you have a chance to get into.
A low GPA combined with a high SAT or ACT score is considered a red flag by some colleges, but others view it as a sign of untapped academic potential. The key is knowing which schools place a higher premium on test scores than grades and focusing on those colleges during the application process.
This guide covers the top-ranked large universities and small liberal arts colleges that you have a good chance of getting into with a low GPA but a high SAT/ACT score.
Table of Contents
- How to Determine Which Colleges to Apply to With a Low GPA and High SAT
- Best Universities for Low GPA/High SAT
- Best Liberal Arts Colleges for Low GPA/High SAT
How to Determine Which Colleges to Apply to With a Low GPA and High SAT
If your GPA is low but your SAT and/or ACT score is strong, it can be difficult to pinpoint how competitive you’ll be during the college application process.
Will admissions representatives take one look at your academic record and put it in the round file while muttering, “Slacker” under their breaths?
Or will they recognize your academic potential and give you the benefit of the doubt, understanding that maybe you just haven’t been sufficiently challenged in your schooling to this point?
The answer depends on the specific school you’re applying to.
The good news is that with a little research, you can identify the best schools in the country where you have an excellent shot of getting in with a low GPA and high SAT score.
And in writing this guide, we did that research for you.
We reviewed the common data sets of the top 100 national universities and top 50 liberal arts colleges in U.S. News. What we were looking for were schools with high SAT/ACT midranges but lower percentages of incoming freshmen in the top 10% or top 25% of their high school class. If a school reported an average high school GPA for incoming freshmen — some colleges still do, but many don’t, citing the wide discrepancies in how different high schools calculate and weight grades — then we factored that in, too.
Our research identified three national universities and three liberal arts colleges, all of them prestigious and highly ranked, and all of them welcoming to students with high test scores but imperfect grades.
Best Universities for Low GPA/High SAT
University of Wisconsin—Madison
- Location: Madison, WI
- U.S. News ranking: #35 in National Universities
- Acceptance rate: 43%
- ACT middle 50%: 28-32
- SAT middle 50%: 1,370-1,490
- Top 10% of high school class: 52%
- Average high school GPA: 3.9
The University of Wisconsin-Madison is a large public university located in Madison, Wisconsin. It’s the state’s flagship school, but its reputation as an elite academic institution extends all over the country and the world.
UW-Madison has a massive student body, with over 33,000 undergraduates and another 12,000 graduate students. It is a member of the Big Ten conference and offers a quintessential college experience, with Greek life, tailgating, and big-time football.
If you want to attend a top-ranked public university and have high test scores, but your GPA is holding you back, UW-Madison should be at the top of your list. Its average high school GPA of 3.9 might look intimidating, but remember that number represents students’ weighted grade averages, which can often add as much as a full point to a raw GPA.
The more relevant number is the percentage of incoming freshmen in the top 10% of their high school class — just over half. That means UW-Madison accepts plenty of students who weren’t lighting the world on fire academically in high school.
The school’s 43% acceptance rate is also encouraging, especially when you consider that practically every college-bound kid from Wisconsin applies to the school.
University of Illinois—Urbana-Champaign
- Location: Champaign, IL
- U.S. News ranking: #35 in National Universities
- Acceptance rate: 45%
- ACT middle 50%: 29-34
- SAT middle 50%: 1,340-1,530
- Top 10% of high school class: 54%
- Average high school GPA: Not reported
The University of Illinois Urbana Champaign is another top-ranked Big Ten school with a strong academic reputation. The school offers an array of majors and programs, with computer science and engineering among its most prestigious academic departments.
The campus is split between the cities of Urbana and Champaign, Illinois. Urbana has more of a kitschy, college-town feel, while Champaign is more suburban. The university community is diverse, friendly, and supportive, and the school provides many opportunities for students to get involved in extracurricular activities, including club sports, academic clubs, and Greek life.
The University of Illinois has a relatively high acceptance rate of 60% along with high test score averages, but only 54% of its most recent incoming freshman class ranked in the top decile of their high school class. This indicates that UIUC might be more test-score-focused than grade-focused, making it a good school to apply to if your SAT/ACT score is much more impressive than your GPA.
One word of warning about applying to UIUC: The overall acceptance rate is 45%, but it can vary substantially from major to major. For instance, computer science, the most competitive major at UIUC from an admissions perspective, has less than a 10% acceptance rate. And UIUC does NOT make it easy to get admitted under an easier major and then switch.
Brandeis University
- Location: Waltham, MA
- U.S. News ranking: #60 in National Universities
- Acceptance rate: 35%
- ACT middle 50%: 31-34
- SAT middle 50%: 1,400-1,500
- Top 10% of high school class: 54%
- Average high school GPA: 3.9
Brandeis University is a private research university situated on an urban campus less than 10 miles from Boston. The school is named after Louis Dembitz Brandeis, the first Jewish justice of the Supreme Court, and it is known as a top destination for Jewish students, particularly those from the Northeast.
With approximately 5,500 undergraduate students and 3,500 graduate students, Brandeis offers a smaller, more intimate learning environment than the two large state schools described above, but it’s still a Tier 1 Research University and has been since 2000.
The student body at Brandeis University is diverse, with students hailing from all over the world. Its most popular majors include biology, public administration, business, marketing, and the social sciences. Class sizes are small, allowing for more personal attention from professors and a more intimate learning environment.
Brandeis has high test score averages but accepts 35% of applicants. Considering that many students likely apply without lofty scores, a high SAT or ACT likely makes you a strong candidate, even if your GPA leaves a little to be desired.
This seems even more likely when you consider that just under half of Brandeis’s most recent incoming freshmen weren’t ranked in the top 10% of their high school class. Also, 13% of the class had below a 3.5 weighted GPA in high school, and nearly 5% had below a 3.25.
Best Liberal Arts Colleges for Low GPA/High SAT
University of Richmond
- Location: Richmond, VA
- U.S. News ranking: #25 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
- Acceptance rate: 23%
- ACT middle 50%: 32-34
- SAT middle 50%: 1,430-1,510
- Top 10% of high school class: 56%
- Average high school GPA: 3.8
The University of Richmond is a private school located in an upscale suburban part of Richmond, VA. It’s a small school with around 3,200 students and a student-to-faculty ratio of 10:1. The average class size is under 20 students, and many classes have fewer than 10. The school has a diverse student body with students from all 50 states and over 60 countries represented, though it’s most popular with students from the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic regions.
Academically, the University of Richmond is known for its business, law, and leadership programs. The school also has strong programs in the liberal arts and sciences. The most popular majors at Richmond are business, psychology, communications, English, and history. It’s one of only a few schools in America classified as a liberal arts college that has a full-fledged business school, as well as a law school. Both are highly ranked.
Outside of the classroom, there are plenty of opportunities to get involved on campus at UR. There are over 150 student organizations to choose from, including fraternities and sororities, clubs, sports teams, and community service groups.
The University of Richmond is the only top-20 liberal arts college that doesn’t seem to have a de facto requirement that nearly all of its admitted students be in the top 10% of their high school class. In fact, only about half are, and even better, fewer than 25% had a 4.0 GPA in high school. So, this school is accepting of a few academic slip-ups.
Kenyon College
- Location: Gambier, OH
- U.S. News ranking: #39 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
- Acceptance rate: 31%
- ACT middle 50%: 31-34
- SAT middle 50%: 1,380-1,480
- Top 10% of high school class: 55%
- Average high school GPA: 3.9
Located in Gambier, Ohio, Kenyon College is a small liberal arts college with an enrollment of about 1,700 students. However, it attracts students from all over the country and the world to its tiny, rural location. Most incoming classes have most if not all of the 50 states represented, along with dozens of foreign countries.
Kenyon has a rigorous liberal arts curriculum. The most popular majors at Kenyon College include English, history, political science, and psychology. Kenyon College also offers a number of unique programs, such as the Rural Scholars Program and the Honors Program.
In the last decade, Kenyon has shot up the rankings and become much more competitive in large part due to the success of one of its most famous alums, the young adult author John Green of The Fault in Our Stars (link to Amazon) fame. The best high school writers in the country often have Kenyon as a top college choice.
Even though admission to Kenyon has gotten tougher in recent years, it’s still possible — and even likely — to get in with a low GPA and high SAT/ACT scores. In fact, only a little over half of the most recent incoming class ranked in the top 10% of their high school class.
Kenyon’s average high school GPA of 3.9 might look intimidating, but remember that’s a weighted average. At many high schools, especially here in Florida (a state that sends many students to Kenyon every year), the top students at public high schools graduate with GPAs that are often above 5.0. That means a 4.0 GPA could indicate anything from a straight-A wizard to a ‘B’ student who takes a lot of AP and honors classes.
College of the Holy Cross
- Location: Worcester, MA
- U.S. News ranking: #27 in National Liberal Arts Colleges
- Acceptance rate: 36%
- ACT middle 50%: 28-32
- SAT middle 50%: 1,270-1,420
- Top 10% of high school class: 38%
- Average high school GPA: Not reported
The College of the Holy Cross is an elite, private Jesuit university located in Worcester, Massachusetts. The school enrolls about 3,100 students from all over the country, though it draws a sizable contingency from the prestigious boarding and prep schools of the Northeast.
Holy Cross students are highly engaged in their studies and the campus community. Like all Jesuit colleges, Holy Cross is heavily focused on community service, with students combining to perform tens of thousands of community service hours each year.
Holy Cross is an excellent choice for students looking for a rigorous academic experience at a top-ranked liberal arts college that serves as a veritable pipeline into top jobs in cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. Its alumni network is strong and loyal, and it has a particularly heavy presence on Wall Street and in the world of management consulting.
It’s also one of the easiest elite schools to get into with a high SAT or ACT score but a low GPA. Only 38% of its students ranked in the top 10% of their high school class, and one out of 5 ranked below the top quarter.
