Many colleges request SAT or ACT scores from applicants during their admission processes, but what about IQ? While an IQ test can give you information about your potential, colleges and universities don’t often ask for your results or test your IQ should you attend. Below, we provided an overview of IQ, what it means for your college admissions, and a dive into the SAT/ACT vs. IQ tests.
What Is IQ?
IQ stands for Intelligence Quotient. It’s generally used to assess human intelligence and cognitive abilities, such as problem-solving skills, memory, and logical reasoning.
Individuals can take a test to learn their IQ. While there are several different types of IQ tests, most consider a 100 out of 200 “average.” A 115 is one standard deviation above the average. A score over 130 is often referred to as “very high,” “very gifted,” or “very superior.”
Do Colleges Test IQ?
No, colleges don’t usually test IQ or ask for IQ test results. There is no minimum IQ requirement for attending college. This is largely because IQ doesn’t correlate directly with academic success. It measures intellectual potential, but doesn’t measure creativity, leadership qualities, drive, and passions.
Instead, colleges look at the whole student, including their grade point average (GPA), academic rigor, community participation, letters of recommendation, essays, standardized test scores, goals, character, and more. This approach gives them a well-rounded view of the applicant.
In general, putting your IQ score on your college applications isn’t recommended. A high IQ score and strong cognitive abilities are fantastic, but schools are more interested in how the individual applied their abilities rather than a number. Students should use their college applications to showcase their skills, passions, characters, and achievements.
Is the SAT/ACT an IQ Test?
No, the SAT and ACT are not IQ tests. Instead, they test a student’s readiness for college-level material. Both exams have questions on reading, writing, and math, and the ACT also has two optional sections: an essay and science.
However, the SAT does have roots that go back to IQ tests.
The SAT and IQ Tests
Today, the College Board administers the SAT test, a college admission exam. Founded in 1900 as the College Entrance Examination Board, their admission tests in 1901 were in an essay format.
The first IQ test is believed to have been invented in 1905 by Alfred Binet, a French psychologist. During World War I (1914 – 1917), Robert Yerkes, a Harvard professor, and Carl C. Brigham administered IQ tests to almost two million army recruits.
Brigham published a study on the results and began providing the Army IQ test to Princeton first years and Cooper Union applicants. The College Board brought on Brigham to help them develop a standardized admission test that would measure “aptitude.” The first SAT exam, offered in 1926, was influenced by Brigham’s experience with the Army IQ test.
The Evolution of the SAT
By the late 1930’s, all Ivy League schools used the SAT for their scholarships and the College Board ended their essay exams in 1942, using only the SAT going forward. It had two sections, verbal and math, which were scored between 200 and 800–or a maximum of 1600.
The exam underwent a number of changes since the 1940s, moving further away from its IQ test foundation. The College Board revised the verbal section in 1952, with questions on reading comprehension, analogies, sentence completion, and antonyms. In the 1990s, the SAT was revised to focus more on testing material and skills that students learned in school. By 2005, both antonyms and analogies were removed from the exam, a writing section was added, and the SAT score increased to 2400.
Keeping up with Current Standards
In 2016, the College Board again revised the exam to align more with high school studies and skills. The essay portion was made optional (it was discontinued in 2021), the maximum score returned to 1600, multiple choice questions had four answer choices rather than five, and wrong answers would no longer hurt scores.
Although the SAT has roots in early IQ tests, today it’s much more in line with high school abilities rather than a test of intelligence potential.
The ACT doesn’t have the same roots as the SAT. Everett Franklin Lindquist, a professor at the University of Iowa, created it in 1959 as an alternative option to the SAT. It originally tested English, math, social studies, and natural sciences.
IQ tests can give you valuable information about your abilities and potential, but they don’t usually translate to college acceptance letters. Instead, colleges are more interested in the student as a person and their achievements, goals, passions, and drive–all things an IQ test can’t measure.
You don’t need a minimum IQ to attend college, but you might need a minimum SAT or ACT result to get accepted to your dream school. See how your standardized test results stack up against previously accepted students at thousands of colleges with College Match.
