By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated November 9, 2026
Three Idaho universities hold AACSB-accredited business schools, the University of Idaho, Boise State University and Idaho State University, and this page lists the SAT and ACT scores of the students they admit, what each costs a New York student, and what Boise State asks before a student is a business major.
Only the University of Idaho reports score ranges, so the table leads with the SAT and has one range to read.
At Boise State a student is Pre-Business until nine gateway courses come back at C- or better with a 2.5 GPA among them, and the flagship publishes no such gate.
Table of Contents
- Idaho Business Colleges by SAT and ACT Score
- What Does It Take to Enter Boise State’s College of Business and Economics?
- Which Idaho Universities Have AACSB-Accredited Business Schools?
- What If Your Score Is Below the Range You Want?
Idaho Business Colleges by SAT and ACT Score
Idaho’s three AACSB-accredited business schools are the College of Business and Economics at the University of Idaho in Moscow, the College of Business and Economics at Boise State University, and the College of Business at Idaho State University in Pocatello, and the table below lists each with its SAT and ACT ranges where reported, cost of attendance, enrollment and admit rate. All three are public, one reports score ranges, and the rows are sorted by the midpoint of the SAT Math range with the two non-reporters following in order of enrollment, so the order can be checked from the table itself.
| College | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | ACT composite | Business school | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Idaho | 500 to 630 | 490 to 600 | 20 to 26 | College of Business and Economics | $23,738 | 7,747 | 76% |
| Boise State University | not reported | not reported | not reported | College of Business and Economics | $28,224 | 17,674 | 87% |
| Idaho State University | not reported | not reported | not repo |
A student can see where his Math score sits on the one rung Idaho reports in the image above.
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University of Idaho
The University of Idaho in Moscow awards its business degrees through its College of Business and Economics, and it is the only one of Idaho’s three AACSB-accredited business schools that reports score ranges to the Scorecard, a Math range of 490 to 600 and an ACT range of 20 to 26.
Reading & Writing 500 to 630, Math 490 to 600. ACT composite 20 to 26. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 600 on Math and 26 on the ACT. Cost of attendance $23,738, with tuition and fees at $9,084 in-state and $28,320 out-of-state. 7,747 undergraduates, 76% admitted.
The flagship is the smallest of the three public campuses but one, 164 undergraduates ahead of Idaho State, and the most expensive of the three for a New Yorker by $532 over Boise State. Its catalog says the college is “one of only 187 schools in the world accredited by AACSB for both our college and our accounting program” [VERIFY the current count on the catalog page]. The cost of attendance in the table is a resident’s. A non-resident’s comes to approximately $42,974 once the higher tuition is substituted, and the $28,320 that drives it sits $5,852 below the University of Alabama’s figure and $15,392 below UConn’s. A student admitted to the university is a business major when he says so, the subject of the next section.
Boise State University
Boise State University awards its business degrees through its College of Business and Economics, and Boise State is the largest of the three by 9,927 undergraduates over the flagship, admits 87% and reports no score ranges.
Score ranges not reported. Cost of attendance $28,224, with tuition and fees at $9,048 in-state and $27,788 out-of-state. 17,674 undergraduates, 87% admitted.
Boise State admits a student to the university on the application and admits him to the College of Business and Economics later, after nine named courses, a 2.5 and a $25 fee, and until then he is listed as Pre-Business. Its non-resident tuition is $532 below the flagship’s and $68 above Idaho State’s, and its premium over a resident, $18,740, is the smallest of the three. The cost of attendance in the table is a resident’s, and a non-resident’s comes to approximately $46,964 with the higher tuition substituted, the highest of the three because Boise’s living costs are the highest of the three.
Idaho State University
Idaho State University in Pocatello awards its business degrees through its College of Business, and Idaho State charges a New Yorker $27,720, the lowest non-resident tuition of the three by $68, and reports neither score ranges nor an admit rate.
Score ranges not reported. Cost of attendance $21,527, with tuition and fees at $8,610 in-state and $27,720 out-of-state. 7,583 undergraduates, admit rate not reported.
Idaho State’s catalog says its BBA, MBA, Master of Accountancy and accounting programs are accredited by AACSB, and the same catalog page states no admission requirement for the college beyond admission to the university [VERIFY on the BBA program pages]. A New Yorker pays $600 a year less at Idaho State than at the flagship, and its premium over a resident, $19,110, sits between the other two. The cost of attendance in the table is a resident’s, and a non-resident’s comes to approximately $40,637 with the higher tuition substituted, the lowest of the three.
Three rows say who got into the university, or in two cases say nothing. The next section is about the nine courses that stand between a Boise State student and the business degree.
What Does It Take to Enter Boise State's College of Business and Economics?
A Boise State University student enters the College of Business and Economics after completing nine gateway courses at C- or better with a 2.5 GPA among them, filing the COBE Admission Application and paying a $25 fee, and until the college reviews his final grades he is listed as Pre-Business.
The college’s admission criteria page sets the rule out in one line, “COBE Admission is a requirement for all Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) majors and minors,” and names four criteria: admission to Boise State, “completion of all COBE Gateway Courses with a grade of C- or higher,” a “minimum COBE Gateway GPA of 2.5,” and the application with its fee. The nine gateway courses are ACCT 205 and ACCT 206, BUS 101, BUSCOM 201, BUSSTAT 207, ECON 201 and ECON 202, ITM 105, and one of MATH 143, MATH 160 or MATH 170 [VERIFY the list on the COBE gateway page]. A student who declared a BBA major on arrival shows in the system as Pre-Business followed by the intended major, Pre-Business Accountancy, for example.
The timing has three dates and a holding status. The priority due date is October 1 for fall admission and March 1 for spring, and the college’s FAQ adds February 1 for summer. A student applies during the final semester of gateway courses and is placed in COBE-Pending status, in which he can enroll in upper-division business courses while the last grades come in, and he becomes COBE-Admitted at the end of the term once the college reviews the final grades against the criteria. The FAQ answers the question every family asks about the 2.5 in six words and a number: “No. All students are required to have a 2.5 Gateway GPA for admission.”
The gate has edges. It does not apply to the Economics BA or to the Business and Economic Analytics BS, and a student in another college who wants an upper-division business course outside the designated open-course list applies through the same process. Decisions arrive by email within one to two weeks of applying.
The flagship publishes nothing of the kind. The University of Idaho catalog’s general requirements for its College of Business and Economics ask that a business major “must have good academic standing” before moving to upper-division work and that a candidate for the B.S.Bus. be “accepted officially as majors in the College of Business and Economics for at least their last two semesters” before graduation, with no GPA number, no course list and no fee [VERIFY the B.B.A. program page for any core GPA]. Idaho State’s catalog page for its College of Business states no gate [VERIFY].
Set against the earlier pages, Boise State’s gate is counted differently and graded differently. On our page on business colleges in Alabama, the University of Alabama also asks nine courses, and sets them at 61 hours with one 2.5. Boise State counts no hours at all, only the nine. And on our page on business colleges in Hawaii, Shidler’s requirements page says a C- is not accepted. Boise State’s says C- or higher is, in every one of the nine. It is the first gate in this grid to take one.
| University | Who is a business major on day one | Second door | GPA |
|---|---|---|---|
| University of Idaho | Any admitted student who declares | None published. Good academic standing before upper-division work, and official acceptance as a major for the last two semesters | None published |
| Boise State University | Nobody. BBA majors are Pre-Business | Nine gateway courses at C- or higher, the COBE Admission Application, $25, by October 1 or March 1 | 2.5 across the nine |
| Idaho State University | Any admitted student who declares [VERIFY] | None found [VERIFY] | None fo |
The image above lists what a Boise State student completes before the College of Business and Economics admits him.
Does a C- Count Toward COBE Admission at Boise State?
Yes, a C- counts toward admission to Boise State’s College of Business and Economics, because the criteria page accepts a grade of C- or higher in each of the nine gateway courses, and Boise State is the first business school in this grid to accept one.
The 2.5 still holds, and the FAQ says it cannot be waived. A C- is worth 1.7 grade points, so each one has to be paid for elsewhere in the nine, and a student with three of them needs the other six to average above a B- to stay at 2.5 [arithmetic: three courses at 1.7 and six at 2.9 average 2.5]. The C- counts, and it can still sink the application.
Nine courses, one 2.5, a C- allowed. Which schools hold the accreditation is the next section.
Which Idaho Universities Have AACSB-Accredited Business Schools?
Three Idaho universities hold business accreditation from AACSB International, all of them public, and the list below names each with its city and the school that awards the business degree [VERIFY all three on the AACSB directory before publishing].
- The University of Idaho in Moscow awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business and Economics, with its accounting program accredited separately.
- Boise State University in Boise awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business and Economics.
- Idaho State University in Pocatello awards its business degrees through its AACSB-accredited College of Business.
Accreditation matters for a reason that is easy to miss at seventeen. Business itself is not a licensed profession, and the one business degree that leads to a license, accounting, leads to it through the state board rather than through the school. A CPA in Idaho normally sits with 120 hours, 20 in accounting and 30 in business, and licenses through one of three pathways that trade a master’s degree, a second year of experience or 30 extra hours against one another [VERIFY on the board’s page]. AACSB status matters on the way there because business schools use it to decide whose courses they will accept in transfer.
Brigham Young University-Idaho in Rexburg is the school a New York family asks about first, because it is the largest campus in the state at 44,397 undergraduates, 11,393 more than the three rows combined, charges every student $4,800 and admits 96%. Its business program is not AACSB-accredited [VERIFY its accreditor], and the Scorecard classes the university as predominantly certificate-awarding because of its online certificate programs. Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston charges a New Yorker $22,028 and admits 88%, with no ranges reported [VERIFY accreditor]. The College of Idaho in Caldwell reports the highest Math range in the state, 530 to 630, admits 49% and charges every student $37,845, and Northwest Nazarene University in Nampa reports 490 to 610, admits 65% and charges $40,794 [VERIFY both accreditors]. None of the four is a row.
Nothing on this page ranks the three. They are three public universities with the same accreditor, one gate counted in courses and three prices within $600, and the pages for business colleges in Washington, business colleges in Oregon, business colleges in Utah and business colleges in Montana carry the schools a student looking at Idaho is likely comparing.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
In Idaho the flagship’s floors are 490 on Math and 20 on the ACT, and the other two publish none. A student under the floor he wants is not ruled out, because a quarter of admitted students were there too. He is in the quarter that needs the rest of the application to carry more.
The first step is finding out where the score actually is, section by section. A free diagnostic SAT gives a Math score that can be set directly against the University of Idaho’s 490 floor.
The Math section rewards the same handful of topics on every test date, and a student who knows which of them he is missing can close a gap of 50 to 100 points in weeks rather than months. The method is on our page on improving your SAT Math score, and at Boise State the same algebra fills two of the nine gateway courses, MATH 143, 160 or 170 and BUSSTAT 207, that must come back at C- or better.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Each range in the table covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that test, so a quarter of admitted students were below the lower number and a quarter were at or above the upper one.
A range describes the students who chose to submit at all. Where a school is test-optional, the range describes the submitters, and the submitters are the students whose scores helped them. A row marked not reported means the Scorecard has no range for that university, and a student should read the university’s own admissions page for the score it expects. More on what SAT score you need for college and on test-optional colleges.
Should You Take the ACT Instead?
Idaho has given the SAT to its public school juniors on a school day [VERIFY whether the state still requires it], and the one school on this page that reports anything reports both tests.
A New York student who holds an SAT should send it to all three and leave the ACT alone unless a school elsewhere asks for it. Nothing at Boise State’s nine-course door reads either test.
Business Programs in Nearby States
Idaho borders six states, and each has its own page in this series.
See business colleges in Washington, business colleges in Oregon, business colleges in Nevada, business colleges in Utah, business colleges in Wyoming and business colleges in Montana.
Business Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for business programs in every state.
See business colleges by state for the full list.
Glyn Caddell
Glyn Caddell holds a BS in Mechanical Engineering from NJIT and has been tutoring New York City students since 2008. He founded Caddell Prep in 2012 and is the author of Digital SAT Math Secrets: Lessons & Tricks to Quickly Improve to a Perfect 800 on the Math Test, which contains over 900 practice problems and is used in Caddell Prep’s SAT math classes. He is founding president of the Staten Island Technical High School alumni association and teaches every lesson on this site personally.
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