Average YU SAT Scores Released

Yeshiva University recently released its average First Time On Campus (FTOC) student SAT and ACT scores for the 2018-2019 school year. The Common Data Set (CDS) is released yearly by YU’s Office of Institutional Research and Assessment.

The CDS is an important statistical tool that universities produce annually for the public. As per YU’s website, “The Common Data Set (CDS) provides a common format for supplying information to the College Board, Peterson's Guides, U.S. News & World Report and part of the Thomson Corporation. CDS covers such information as student admission, enrollment, retention, and graduation; academic offerings and policies; student life; financial aid, etc. The CDS is a set of standards and definitions of data items defined by these groups.” 

According to the CDS, from 2016-2017, 59% or 321 first time on campus students submitted SAT scores, compared to the 53% (330) in 2017-2018 and 45% (253) in 2018-2019.

A close comparison of the CDS charts shows that SAT scores of current first year students are slightly lower than years prior. In 2016-2017, the score for SAT critical reading was 540 in the 25th percentile and 680 in the 75th percentile. In 2017-2018, which features scores after the creation of the New SAT, students in the 25th percentile scored 600  and 710 in the 75th percentile on SAT evidence-based reading and writing. The most recent CDS shows that students achieved 580 in the 25th percentile and 700 in the 75th percentile on SAT evidence-based reading and writing. 

For SAT math during 2016-2017, students scored 550 and 680 for the 25th and 75th percentile, respectively. In 2017-2018, students achieved a 560 in the 25th percentile and 710 in the 75th percentile. This past year (2018-2019), students scored 560 in the 25th percentile and 700 in the 75th percentile. Scores in the 25th percentile remained constant while those in the 75th percentile dropped by 10 points. 

The average student score on the ACT has not varied much over the past three years. In 2016-2017, students in the 25th percentile achieved a composite score of 23 on the ACT and a 30 in the 75th percentile. 2017-2018 scores for the ACT brought a composite of 23 in the 25th percentile and 29 in the 75th percentile. The most recent CDS exhibited an ACT composite score of 22 in the 25th percentile and 30 in the 75th percentile. 

ACT math scores were 23 in the 25th percentile and 28 in the 75th percentile in 2016-2017. The following year’s CDS (2017-2018) showed that students achieved a score of 22 in the 25th percentile and 29 in the 75th percentile. ACT math scores for the 2018-2019 year were 22 for the 25th percentile and 29 for the 75th percentile.  

2016-2017 ACT English marks were 24 in the 25th percentile and 31 in the 75th percentile. The next year, in 2017-2018, students earned ACT English scores of 23 in the 25th percentile and 31 in the 75th percentile. In 2018-2019, English marks were 23 and 33 for the 25th and 75th percentile, respectively.

Between 2016 and 2019, there was an increase of 10% of students who chose to submit ACT scores rather than SAT scores. In 2016-2017, 59% of students sent in SAT scores, while a mere 42% sent in ACT scores. The most recent CDS reported that 52% submitted their ACT marks and 45% submitted the SAT, making the ACT the most commonly submitted standardized test for the first time in YU’s history.

According to the university’s Director of Institutional Research and Assessment Yuxiang Liu, “The scores for the past two years looks [sic] like a regular fluctuation, with no dramatic up or down for either SAT or ACT. The ACT scores fluctuated less than SAT, and the transition from [the] old SAT to [the] new SAT may explain part of it.”