What a 1480 SAT score means
A 1480 is excellent. On College Board’s current tables it sits at the 97th percentile of students who took the SAT, so you scored at or above roughly 97% of test-takers (top 3%). Measured against all US juniors and seniors, including those who never take the test, it is the 99th percentile. The national average total is about 1025, so a 1480 is 455 points above the average. On the official concordance it is equivalent to about a 33 composite on the ACT.
Which colleges a 1480 fits
Admissions readers compare your score with the middle-50% range of admitted students, published in each college’s Common Data Set. A 1480 is at or just below the middle-50% range of the most selective universities, and comfortably above the range at excellent public flagships such as Michigan, Virginia, Georgia Tech and UCLA. Ranges move a little each year, and a growing number of colleges are test-optional, so check each college’s current policy; the good-score guide lists sample ranges.
How a 1480 breaks down
The total is the sum of two sections scored 200–800, so several combinations produce a 1480:
| Reading and Writing | Math | Total |
|---|---|---|
| 740 | 740 | 1480 |
| 790 | 690 | 1480 |
| 690 | 790 | 1480 |
Colleges see both sections, and STEM programs in particular look at Math on its own, so a 1480 built on a strong Math score reads differently from the same total the other way round. With balanced sections on the harder Module 2 path, a 1480 takes roughly 49 of 54 correct in Reading and Writing and 39 of 44 in Math; try your own numbers in the score calculator.
Moving a 1480 up
The next band starts at 1500 (Exceptional), 20 points away. Near this part of the scale each extra correct answer is worth roughly 15–25 points, so that is about 1 more questions right, spread across both sections. At this level improvement is about consistency under time pressure: the remaining misses are usually careless rather than content gaps. See how to improve your SAT score, and remember that most colleges superscore, so a retake can target one section.
Nearby scores
- Is 1430 a good SAT score?
- Is 1460 a good SAT score?
- Is 1470 a good SAT score?
- Is 1490 a good SAT score?
- Is 1500 a good SAT score?
- Is 1530 a good SAT score?
Last updated September 2026. Percentiles from College Board’s current SAT User and Nationally Representative tables; ACT equivalents from the official 2018 concordance; college ranges approximate.