Thirteen Colleges Share One SAT Range. Their Early Decision Rounds Don't.

At thirteen colleges that run Early Decision and publish how their early round went, the middle half of the first-year class scored between 1500 and 1580 on the SAT. The ranges aren't just close. They are nearly the same line: every one starts between 1500 and 1520 and ends at 1570 or 1580. A student with a 1550 is inside the published range at all thirteen. A student with a 1580 is at or above the top of it at all thirteen.

That is an odd place to be when you have one binding application to spend. The measure that has sorted your list since junior year, where your score falls against each college's range, stops sorting. Every college looks the same through it. Two other published numbers don't: what each college's early round is worth, and what each one charges a family like yours.

The thirteen, by their early rounds

"Everyone else" is every applicant who did not apply Early Decision. The multiple is the early rate divided by that rate; the points are the difference between the two.

What the score can't do here

Twenty points separate the lowest 25th percentile on this list from the highest, and ten separate the 75th percentiles. Choosing among these colleges by where your score falls is choosing by a rounding difference. At the test-optional ones, the range also describes only the students who chose to send a score.

That isn't a complaint about the score. It did its job: it put you in range at all thirteen. The questions left are ones it was never going to answer.

What the early round can

The early rounds are not the same line. Dartmouth admits its early applicants at 5.7 times the rate of everyone else; Rice at 1.5. In points, Dartmouth's round adds 18 and Rice's adds 4.

The thirteen fall into three groups. At Dartmouth, Duke, Brown, Penn, Columbia, Northwestern and Vanderbilt, the early round admits at 3.4 times the regular rate or more. At WashU and Cornell, 2.8 to 2.9 times. At Johns Hopkins, Carnegie Mellon, Harvey Mudd and Rice, 2.1 times or less.

Put the "everyone else" column beside it and the stakes sharpen. Dartmouth's regular round admitted 3.8 percent of its applicants, and its early round admitted more than five and a half times that. Rice's regular round admitted 7.4 percent, and its early round added four points. Every regular round on this list is under 12 percent, which is the territory where the multiple is the more honest lens (multiples or points).

What the price adds

These are the average net prices families in each income band paid in 2023–24, after grants and before loans.

For a family earning $75,000 to $110,000, the thirteen run from $8,534 a year at Dartmouth to about $25,500 at Penn and Harvey Mudd, a difference of roughly $68,000 over four years. Over $110,000, they run from $37,774 at Johns Hopkins to $55,972 at Penn, about $73,000 over four years.

Sometimes the two lists agree. Dartmouth has the largest early edge of the thirteen and, for the $75,000–$110,000 band, the lowest average price. Sometimes they pull apart. Johns Hopkins has one of the smaller early edges and, for families over $110,000, the lowest average price on the list.

These are averages. Assets, other children in college and business income move a real family off them, sometimes a long way. Each college's net price calculator is the step after you've narrowed the list.

One student, four colleges

Take a student with a 1540 whose family earns about $95,000 and who would be glad to go to Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt or Rice.

• The score is inside the range at all four. It says nothing.
• The early round says Duke (4.1×) moves the most, Northwestern (3.5×) and Vanderbilt (3.4×) are close behind, and Rice (1.5×) moves the least.
• The price for that band says Vanderbilt ($12,153) costs the least of the four, then Duke ($17,100), Rice ($17,755) and Northwestern ($18,282).

If the family wants the binding promise to buy the most, the filings point to Duke. If price leads, Vanderbilt gives up a little of the edge for about $5,000 a year. Northwestern's edge is about the same as Vanderbilt's, at about $6,000 a year more for this band. Rice is the hardest to justify for this particular round: the smallest edge of the four at a price near the top. That isn't a verdict on Rice. Its regular round is the most open of the four, which is exactly why its early round adds so little.

What none of this tells you

The early pool at every one of these colleges includes recruited athletes, legacy applicants and others whose files were read with something extra attached. The multiple describes the round, not a student without those things (what our estimate adds for your score).

And the range, the multiple and the price are only the parts of this decision the colleges have written down. Whether you would rather spend four years in Durham or in Evanston is the part they can't.

Where the numbers come from

Early Decision applicants and admits (section C21) and all applicants and admits (section C1) are from each college's most recent Common Data Set: 2024–25 for Duke, and 2025–26 for the other twelve. SAT middle-50% ranges and average net price by family income (2023–24) are from the federal College Scorecard. The University of Chicago reports the same SAT range and offers Early Decision, but its Common Data Set leaves the early-round applicants and admits blank, so it isn't in the table.

Start with the school you're leaning toward: what it published, and your estimate there, are free. The full answer for your whole list is the paid document.