SSAT Scores at the Most Selective Boarding Schools

The most selective boarding schools are commonly cited as expecting scores in the 90th to 94th percentile. Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover fall in that range. A step below, Groton, Milton, and St. Paul’s cluster around the 89th to 90th percentile. Most of the rest of the top boarding school tier sits around the 85th to 88th percentile. That group includes Deerfield, Choate, Hotchkiss, Lawrenceville, and Middlesex. These figures are widely cited estimates. Very few schools release an exact official number.

The short answer: Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover are commonly cited around the 90th to 94th percentile. Groton School, Milton Academy, and St. Paul’s School cluster around 89th to 90th. Deerfield, Choate Rosemary Hall, The Hotchkiss School, The Lawrenceville School, and Middlesex School generally sit around 85th to 88th. Cate School and The Thacher School are two of the only schools to publish an official figure, at 80th and 84th percentile. These numbers are estimates. They’re compiled from admissions consultants and test-prep sources, since most boarding schools treat testing as one holistic factor and don’t publish a hard cutoff.

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Where These Numbers Come From

Almost no boarding school publishes an official minimum SSAT score. Averages can also shift from year to year, based on that year’s applicant pool. The percentiles below are the ranges most consistently cited across boarding school admissions consultants, test-prep organizations, and published rankings like BoardingSchoolReview.com. Treat them as a reliable planning target, not a guaranteed cutoff. Cate School and The Thacher School are the two exceptions on this list. Both publish their own SSAT figures directly, called out below.

The Most Elite Tier: 90th Percentile and Above

School	Commonly Cited SSAT Percentile
Phillips Exeter Academy	~90th–94th
Phillips Academy Andover	~90th–93rd
Groton School	~90th
Milton Academy	~90th

These four schools sit at the very top of the boarding school hierarchy. These figures reflect their reputations for academic intensity. None of the four publishes a hard minimum, and admissions is holistic. A strong application elsewhere can offset a score below this range. But a student at the 90th percentile or above is competitive on testing alone. That’s one less variable to manage in an already demanding application.

Top-Tier Boarding Schools: 85th to 89th Percentile

School	Commonly Cited SSAT Percentile
St. Paul’s School	~89th
Middlesex School	~88th
Deerfield Academy	~85th–87th
Choate Rosemary Hall	~85th
The Hotchkiss School	~85th
The Lawrenceville School	~85th

This tier represents some of the most recognized boarding school names in the country. The 85th percentile shows up again and again as a rough floor for competitive applicants. Students in this range are still applying to schools with serious academic expectations. A score meaningfully below 80 will likely need to be offset by strength elsewhere in the application, particularly grades and recommendations.

The Two Schools That Publish an Official Number

Cate School, in Carpinteria, California, states directly that competitive applicants typically score around the 80th percentile. That’s a total score between 2100 and 2400 on the Upper Level SSAT. The Thacher School, in Ojai, California, reports a median total SSAT percentile of 84 among its applicants. Both schools are explicit that there’s no minimum score requirement, and that admissions decisions are holistic. These two figures deserve slightly more confidence than the rest of this list, since they come directly from the schools rather than from third-party estimates.

Why the Numbers Aren’t Exact

Boarding schools describe admissions as holistic on purpose. Test scores sit alongside grades, recommendations, essays, interviews, and extracurricular involvement. A published cutoff would suggest a harder line than actually exists in how decisions get made. Several schools in this tier currently let applicants apply without submitting a test score at all, including Choate, Deerfield, Thacher, and Loomis Chaffee. That policy alone shows how much the rest of an application can carry.

What This Means for Your Student’s Prep

A student aiming for one of the schools in the 90th-plus tier should treat that as a real target, not just a nice-to-have. The gap between a 75th and a 90th percentile score often comes down to closing specific content gaps. That’s different from general “test-taking smarts,” and it’s exactly what focused prep is built to do.

For a sense of how much a score can realistically move with focused prep, this post on realistic SSAT score improvement breaks down what’s achievable depending on where a student is starting from. This percentile guide gives in-depth background of how SSAT percentiles work.

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Frequently Asked Questions: SSAT Scores at Selective Boarding Schools

What SSAT percentile does it take to get into Phillips Exeter or Phillips Andover?

Phillips Exeter and Phillips Andover are commonly cited as expecting scores in the 90th to 94th percentile range. Neither school publishes an official minimum, and admissions remains holistic. This range is still the most consistently cited estimate across admissions consultants and test-prep sources.

What SSAT score is competitive for schools like Deerfield, Choate, or Hotchkiss?

Deerfield, Choate Rosemary Hall, and The Hotchkiss School are commonly cited around the 85th to 87th percentile. This tier includes several of the most recognized boarding school names in the country. The 85th percentile shows up consistently as a rough floor for competitive applicants.

Do any boarding schools publish their actual SSAT score expectations?

Yes, though very few. Cate School states that competitive applicants typically score around the 80th percentile. The Thacher School reports a median total SSAT percentile of 84. Both figures come directly from the schools, which makes them more reliable than the estimated ranges reported for most other top boarding schools.

Are these SSAT percentile numbers official cutoffs?

No. These are commonly cited estimates, not official minimums. Boarding school admissions are holistic, and averages can shift from year to year. No school on this list treats the SSAT as the sole deciding factor in an admissions decision.