Yes, 1520 is a very good SAT score. According to College Board, it is the 98th percentile of recent SAT takers and the 99th+ percentile of all US juniors and seniors. On the official ACT/SAT concordance it matches a 34. For top engineering schools, a 1520 with a near-perfect math score clears the academic bar, and your courses, projects and essays decide the rest.
| SAT total | User percentile | Nationally representative | ACT equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1550 | 99 | 99+ | 35 |
| 1520 | 98 | 99+ | 34 |
| 1500 | 97 | 99 | 34 |
| 1450 | 95 | 99 | 33 |
Percentiles from College Board's SAT percentile tables. ACT equivalents from the 2018 ACT/SAT concordance. Checked September 2026.
A 1520 SAT is a highly competitive score, and for engineering applicants, the 800 Math score is the most important part of that number. While a 720 in English is slightly lower than the median for some Ivy League schools, it will not be the reason you get rejected from a top engineering program. Top STEM schools like MIT, Caltech, and Carnegie Mellon prioritize your quantitative ability above all else. If you have a perfect math score, you have already cleared the primary academic hurdle for the engineering department.
Engineering admissions officers look at the Math section first. For schools like MIT or Georgia Tech, the Math score is a filter. They need to know you can handle multivariable calculus and differential equations from day one. An 800 tells them that you have mastered the high school curriculum and are ready for university level rigor.
When you look at the middle 50% score ranges that the most competitive engineering schools publish in their Common Data Sets, the Math scores are tightly packed near the top of the scale. By hitting 800, you are in the top tier of applicants. You have effectively "checked the box" for quantitative proficiency.
Many students panic when their English score is lower than their Math score, similar to the anxiety some feel when considering retaking the MCAT with high scores. However, admissions committees for engineering are realistic. They know that a student who is a genius at physics and calculus might not be a perfect poet. A 720 is still a very strong score: College Board puts a 720 in Reading and Writing at the 95th percentile of test takers. It proves you are literate, capable of reading complex texts, and can write clearly. To raise that section, see how to study for SAT English.
In the context of a T20 application, the difference between a 720 and a 760 in English is marginal for an engineering major. It is unlikely that an admissions officer will say, "This student has a perfect math score and a 4.0 GPA, but their 720 English score is too low for our Mechanical Engineering program." That simply does not happen. They are looking for a threshold of competence in English, and 720 is well above that threshold.
To understand if 1520 is enough, you have to look at how T20 schools actually make decisions. They use a holistic review process. This means they look at the whole person, not just a number, including their grasp of the foundations of software engineering and programming and whether studying computer science is risky if applying for CS. The SAT is used to ensure you can handle the work. Once you hit a certain number (usually around 1500 for T20s), the SAT stops being the deciding factor.
Think of the SAT as a threshold. A 1520 is high enough that your score will not be the reason an admissions officer stops reading. Once you are past the filter, the admissions officer spends their time looking at other things. They look at your:
If those courses are still ahead of you, see our guides to studying for AP Calculus AB and studying for AP Chemistry.
If you spend another 40 hours studying to move your English score from 720 to 760, you are spending 40 hours to gain a tiny advantage in one category. If you spend those same 40 hours polishing your common app essay or building a project for your portfolio, you are gaining a much larger advantage in a category that actually differentiates you from other high scorers.
The decision to retake depends on your specific goals and your current workload. For most students with a 1520 (800M), the answer is no. But there are a few exceptions.
You should stop testing if you are in the following situation:
A retake is only logical if:
Since your SAT is already in the competitive range, your focus should shift toward the parts of the application that you can still control. Engineering schools want to see "evidence of passion." They want to see that you don't just get good grades, but that you actually like building things.
For schools like CMU or MIT, a portfolio of your work is often more valuable than a 1600 SAT. This could include:
Avoid generic statements like "I have always loved math" or "I want to help the world." Instead, be specific. Talk about a specific problem you tried to solve. Describe the frustration of a circuit that wouldn't work and the satisfaction of finally finding the bug. This shows the admissions officer that you have the temperament of an engineer.
Once you move past the SAT, you will face a new challenge: the sheer volume of information in university engineering courses. The habits that got you a 1520 (like grinding practice tests) are not always the most efficient for long term retention in college. You need to move from "cramming" to "systems."
Active recall and spaced repetition are the most effective ways to learn complex material. Instead of reading a textbook three times, you should be testing yourself on the material. This is where automation becomes useful. Creating hundreds of flashcards by hand is a waste of time when you could be studying the actual content.
StudyCards AI solves this problem by allowing you to upload your PDFs and automatically generating AI flashcards that export directly to Anki. Whether you are preparing for the MCAT, the bar exam, or just your first semester of Organic Chemistry, this system removes the friction of card creation. You can focus on the actual learning process rather than the data entry of making cards.
For students aiming for T20s, time is your most valuable resource. Using StudyCards AI to handle the tedious parts of studying allows you to spend more time on your projects and essays, which we have already established are more important than a few extra points on the SAT.
Your 1520 is a fantastic score. You have the math skills required for the best engineering schools in the world. Now it is time to show them who you are outside of a standardized test.
Yes. College Board puts a 1520 at the 98th percentile of recent SAT takers and the 99th+ percentile of all US 11th and 12th graders. It is competitive at every university, though at the most selective schools it sits near or below the middle of admitted students.
The 98th user percentile, meaning about 98% of students who took the SAT in the last three graduating classes scored 1520 or lower. On College Board's nationally representative scale it is 99+.
About a 34. The official 2018 ACT/SAT concordance maps SAT totals from 1490 to 1520 to an ACT composite of 34.
It is enough to be taken seriously, especially with an 800 or near-800 math score, but it does not decide admission. At MIT and similar schools most applicants have high scores, so course rigor, projects and essays make the difference. Check each school's Common Data Set for its current score ranges.
Usually not. Retake only if one section, typically Reading and Writing, is clearly below your practice scores and you can raise it without taking time from essays and projects.
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