How does a higher score change your odds?
Enter your current SAT or ACT, pick your colleges. We model how your admission odds shift at each score level — based on the colleges' own published 25th/75th percentile bands.
Your starting point
Model: Each college's enrolled students have a roughly normal score distribution (the 25-75 band ≈ ±0.67σ around the median). Your relative position shifts admit odds via a logistic curve, with diminishing returns above the 75th percentile (high scorers are competing primarily on holistic factors at top schools). Scores cap at 1600 SAT / 36 ACT. This is a directional estimate — not a prediction. Holistic review weighs essays, course rigor, EC depth, demographics, and context that the model can't see.
Pick colleges to model
Type a college, or pick a preset.
Test-blind colleges (the UCs, Caltech for first-year admissions, and a handful of others) don't appear here. They don't consider SAT or ACT scores at all — even if you submit them, scores aren't used in the admission decision, so this calculator can't model them.
For those schools, GPA, rigor, and the personal-insight side of your application carry the full weight. For UC odds specifically, scroll to the Test-blind: GPA only section below — your Weighted GPA powers a per-campus admit-rate lookup from UCOP's published bands.
⭐ Test-blind: GPA only
Your UC admit odds by GPA band
The 9 UC undergraduate campuses are test-blind — scores aren't used in the admit decision, so the picker above can't model them. The UC publishes admit rates per GPA band per campus. Using your Weighted GPA input above, here's where you land at each UC in the 2025 cycle.
Top GPA band (4.00+) — 5-yr admit-rate trend
| Campus | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| UC Berkeley | 22.2% | 16.5% | 17.1% | 17.1% | 17.0% |
| UCLA | 18.3% | 13.0% | 13.6% | 14.4% | 15.1% |
| UC San Diego | 59.0% | 37.4% | 39.3% | 43.5% | 45.2% |
| UC Santa Barbara | 54.0% | 41.3% | 45.7% | 57.3% | 62.3% |
| UC Irvine | 46.3% | 34.9% | 41.8% | 46.0% | 46.3% |
| UC Davis | 74.4% | 57.5% | 64.0% | 64.1% | 65.9% |
| UC Santa Cruz | 87.1% | 69.4% | 84.9% | 91.9% | 95.4% |
| UC Riverside | 95.8% | 94.6% | 92.0% | 94.4% | 97.7% |
| UC Merced | 97.5% | 97.6% | 96.4% | 96.2% | 98.8% |
Source: UCOP Annual Freshman Admissions report (2025). Banded admit rates are population-level — they don't model major selectivity (CS at Berkeley is far tougher than the campus rate), residency (OOS rates run lower at every campus except Berkeley), or program-specific bars. Directional signal, not a personalized prediction.