By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 22, 2026
Seven Alabama universities offer ABET-accredited engineering degrees, and this page lists what they cost and the ACT and SAT scores of the students they admit.
Every one of them starts the engineering curriculum at Calculus I, and at three of the four largest, the Math score on the ACT or SAT decides whether a student starts there or spends a semester in a preparatory course first. The thresholds are published and they differ by campus, and they are covered below the table.
Scores are given by section for the SAT, with an ACT composite column added because more Alabama colleges report the ACT than the SAT. On either test, the Math score is the one engineering programs use.
Table of Contents
- Alabama Engineering Colleges by ACT and SAT Score
- What Math Score Do You Need to Start Engineering in Calculus in Alabama?
- Which Alabama Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
- What If Your Math Score Is Below the Placement Line You Want?
Alabama Engineering Colleges by ACT and SAT Score
The seven universities below are the ones in Alabama that hold an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. They are sorted by the midpoint of the ACT composite range, with ties broken by the SAT Math midpoint, so the order can be checked from the table itself.
| College | ACT composite | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Auburn University | 26 to 31 | 630 to 690 | 630 to 700 | $34,919 | 26,816 | 46% |
| University of Alabama in Huntsville | 24 to 31 | 600 to 690 | 610 to 720 | $27,392 | 6,591 | 69% |
| The University of Alabama | 24 to 31 | 590 to 690 | 580 to 710 | $33,382 | 33,227 | 77% |
| University of Alabama at Birmingham | 23 to 30 | 600 to 710 | 610 to 740 | $28,145 | 11,635 | 88% |
| University of South Alabama | 20 to 26 | 500 to 610 | 470 to 580 | $25,476 | 8,879 | 71% |
| Tuskegee University | 18 to 25 | Not reported | Not reported | $43,454 | 2,630 | 49% |
| Alabama A&M University | 14 to 19 | 420 to 530 | 390 to 510 | $27,153 | 6,124 | 58% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that test. A quarter scored below the lower number, and the top quarter scored at or above the upper one. Being under the lower number does not rule a student out, and being just above it is not as safe as it looks.
Alabama colleges that offer engineering technology degrees rather than engineering degrees are left off this list. Engineering technology is a separate ABET category, it does not normally lead to licensure as a professional engineer, and a student searching for engineering colleges is not looking for it.
Three things about that table are worth pausing on, and all three are about the Math column.
UAB has the highest SAT Math range in the state, 610 to 740, while admitting 88% of applicants. Those two facts sit together because UAB’s applicants self-select into health sciences and engineering. A high range does not always mean a hard admission.
UAH’s Math range sits above its Reading & Writing range at both ends, 610 to 720 against 600 to 690. That is what an engineering-weighted campus looks like in the data, and UAH is the only school on the list where it happens on the SAT.
The University of Alabama’s SAT Math 75th percentile is 710. That is the exact score its catalog uses to place a student into Calculus I from the SAT alone, so three quarters of the students UA admits scored below the line that puts them straight into engineering math. The next section explains what that means.
A student can see where his Math score sits on this list, and how far it sits from each university’s calculus line, in the image above.
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Auburn University
Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering in Auburn is the largest engineering college in the state, and Auburn is the most selective university on this list by admit rate.
ACT composite 26 to 31. SAT Reading & Writing 630 to 690, Math 630 to 700. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 31, 690 and 700. Cost of attendance $34,919, with tuition and fees at $12,890 in-state and $34,922 out-of-state. 26,816 undergraduates, 46% admitted.
Auburn is also the one university on this page that does not use the ACT or SAT for math placement at all. That is explained in the next section.
University of Alabama in Huntsville
The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s College of Engineering sits next to NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal, and its score profile is the most engineering-shaped in the state.
ACT composite 24 to 31. SAT Reading & Writing 600 to 690, Math 610 to 720. The top quarter scored at or above 31, 690 and 720. Cost of attendance $27,392, with tuition and fees at $12,132 in-state and $26,408 out-of-state. 6,591 undergraduates, 69% admitted.
UAH is the second cheapest university on the list by cost of attendance and has the second highest SAT Math range.
The University of Alabama
The University of Alabama’s College of Engineering in Tuscaloosa is the flagship’s engineering school, and any student admitted to the university is eligible to enter it. There is no separate score for engineering.
ACT composite 24 to 31. SAT Reading & Writing 590 to 690, Math 580 to 710. The top quarter scored at or above 31, 690 and 710. Cost of attendance $33,382, with tuition and fees at $12,180 in-state and $34,172 out-of-state. 33,227 undergraduates, 77% admitted.
UA is the largest university in Alabama, and its Math 75th percentile is the only one on the page that lands exactly on a placement threshold.
University of Alabama at Birmingham
The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Engineering admits to its engineering majors on a published Math score, and that score is lower than most readers would guess.
ACT composite 23 to 30. SAT Reading & Writing 600 to 710, Math 610 to 740. The top quarter scored at or above 30, 710 and 740. Cost of attendance $28,145, with tuition and fees at $9,098 in-state and $22,562 out-of-state. 11,635 undergraduates, 88% admitted.
UAB has the lowest in-state tuition on the page by a distance and the highest SAT Math range. Entry to an engineering major needs an ACT Math of 22 and a 3.0 GPA, and UAB’s ACT Math 25th percentile is 20, so the bottom quarter of admitted students start as undeclared with an interest in engineering rather than in a major.
University of South Alabama
The University of South Alabama’s College of Engineering in Mobile is the cheapest route to an ABET engineering degree on this list by full cost of attendance.
ACT composite 20 to 26. SAT Reading & Writing 500 to 610, Math 470 to 580. The top quarter scored at or above 26, 610 and 580. Cost of attendance $25,476, with tuition and fees at $10,116 in-state and $19,092 out-of-state. 8,879 undergraduates, 71% admitted.
South Alabama is the only university in the top five whose SAT Math range sits entirely below the lowest calculus placement line in the state.
Tuskegee University
Tuskegee University’s College of Engineering holds ABET-accredited programs in aerospace, chemical, electrical and mechanical engineering, and Tuskegee is one of two historically Black universities on this list.
ACT composite 18 to 25. SAT section ranges are not reported. Cost of attendance $43,454, with tuition and fees at $25,386 for all students. 2,630 undergraduates, 49% admitted.
Tuskegee is the smallest school on the page and the most expensive, and it is the only private university on it.
Alabama A&M University
Alabama A&M University’s College of Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences in Huntsville holds ABET-accredited degrees in civil, electrical and mechanical engineering, and Alabama A&M is the second historically Black university on the list.
ACT composite 14 to 19. SAT Reading & Writing 420 to 530, Math 390 to 510. The top quarter scored at or above 19, 530 and 510. Cost of attendance $27,153, with tuition and fees at $10,024 in-state and $18,634 out-of-state. 6,124 undergraduates, 58% admitted.
Alabama A&M shares a city with UAH, and the two universities sit at opposite ends of the score table.
Every one of these seven programs begins at Calculus I. Where a student begins depends on his Math score, and that is the part of the page that matters most.
What Math Score Do You Need to Start Engineering in Calculus in Alabama?
A student needs an SAT Math of 640 at UAH, 680 at UAB and 710 at the University of Alabama to be placed into Calculus I from the test score alone, or an ACT Math of 28, 29 and 30 respectively, and Auburn does not use either test for placement.
Those numbers matter because engineering in Alabama starts at calculus. The University of Alabama’s College of Engineering does not let engineering students count any mathematics course below MATH 125 Calculus I toward the degree, and its Math Progress Rule expects an engineering student to be enrolled in MATH 125 or higher in the first semester. A student placed below it takes preparatory courses that do not count, normally in the summer before entry, to stay on track for a four-year degree.
The thresholds are different at each campus. They are listed from lowest to highest, with Auburn last because it is the exception.
The University of Alabama in Huntsville places by its own four-level chart. Level 3, an SAT Math of 640 or higher or an ACT Math of 28 or higher, goes straight into MA 171 Calculus A. Level 2, an SAT Math of 600 to 630 or an ACT Math of 25 to 27, goes into MA 171S, the same calculus course with a required support section. Below 600 a student starts in precalculus or lower.
The University of Alabama at Birmingham places a first-year student into MA 125 Calculus I automatically at an SAT Math of 680 or an ACT Math of 29. Below that a student takes the ALEKS math placement assessment, and the assessment decides. Separately, admission to an engineering major at UAB needs an ACT Math of 22 and a 3.0 high school GPA. UAB refers to an SAT equivalent for that rule but does not publish the number.
The University of Alabama places into MATH 125 Calculus I at an SAT Math of 710 or an ACT Math of 30, or at a qualifying score on the UA math placement test, or after a C- in precalculus. An SAT Math of 650 or an ACT Math of 28 places into MATH 115, the precalculus algebra and trigonometry course that feeds Calculus I. Any student admitted to UA may enter the College of Engineering, so the score decides the first math class and nothing else.
Auburn University stopped using ACT and SAT scores for math placement in 2023. Every incoming student takes the ALEKS placement assessment, and MATH 1610 Calculus I needs a score of 78 on it or a C in precalculus. At Auburn the Math section does nothing for placement, and a student’s test score is not a reason to pick or avoid it.
Take a student with a 650 SAT Math. At UAH he is in Calculus A in the fall. At UAB he is in calculus only if he passes the ALEKS assessment. At UA he is in precalculus unless he passes the placement test. The same 650 lands in three different math classes, and the image above shows where.
These are placement thresholds, not admission thresholds. A 600 Math does not keep a student out of any university on this page. It decides which math class he starts in, and at every campus a placement test or the ALEKS assessment can move him up or down from where the score alone would put him.
Students applying without a score frequently ask whether that changes anything. It does, and not in the direction they expect.
Does Test-Optional Admission Change Math Placement?
Test-optional admission does not change math placement. The University of Alabama does not require an ACT or SAT score from an applicant with a 3.0 GPA through the Fall 2027 term, and UAH and UAB admit test-optional students as well, but all three still place every student into a first math course. A student with no score is placed by the UA placement test, by the ALEKS assessment at UAB, or, at UAH, into a precalculus or lower course by default unless he takes the placement test.
So a student who has been told the SAT no longer matters for Alabama’s public universities is being told something true about admission and false about his first semester of engineering.
The placement rules belong to the universities. The degree the student is placed toward is what the next section describes.
Which Alabama Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
Seven Alabama universities hold ABET-accredited bachelor’s degrees in engineering, and all seven are in the table above.
Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering is the largest, with programs across aerospace, biosystems, chemical, civil, computer, electrical, industrial and systems, materials, mechanical and software engineering. The University of Alabama’s College of Engineering in Tuscaloosa is the second largest. The University of Alabama in Huntsville’s College of Engineering sits beside NASA Marshall Space Flight Center and Redstone Arsenal, and aerospace and defense employers are a short drive from campus. The University of Alabama at Birmingham’s School of Engineering is attached to the state’s academic medical center and holds the state’s biomedical engineering program. The University of South Alabama’s College of Engineering is in Mobile. Tuskegee University’s College of Engineering and Alabama A&M University’s College of Engineering, Technology and Physical Sciences are the engineering schools at the state’s two historically Black universities with ABET engineering programs.
Accreditation matters for a reason that is easy to miss at seventeen. Licensure as a professional engineer in Alabama normally requires a degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program, and a student who graduates from a program without it faces extra steps to sit for the exams.
Samford University is the one Alabama college a reader might expect on this list and will not find. Samford offers an engineering physics major with a dual-degree route through Auburn, UAB or Mercer, and the engineering degree in that arrangement comes from the partner university.
Nothing on this page ranks the seven. The table’s order is a stated, verifiable number, and the choice among accredited programs comes down to cost, location and where a student’s Math score places him.
What If Your Math Score Is Below the Placement Line You Want?
An Alabama engineering applicant has two targets that behave differently, and the SAT Math or ACT Math score serves only one of them.
Admission at Alabama’s public universities is largely test-optional, so the score may not matter there at all. Placement is not optional at any of them. A Math score 30 to 70 points higher on the SAT, or two points higher on the ACT, is the difference between Calculus I in the fall and a preparatory course over the summer, and a student can be above a university’s admitted range and below its calculus line at the same time.
That is a narrower problem than raising a total score, and it is a more tractable one. 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 50-point gap in weeks rather than months. The method is on our page on how to improve your SAT Math score.
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 compared directly against the lines above.
The difference between the two timelines in the image above is one summer, or one semester behind.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted that test. The lower number is the 25th percentile and the upper number is the 75th, so a quarter of admitted students scored at or above it.
A published range and a placement threshold are different kinds of figure. The range is a percentile of the students a university admitted. The threshold is a fixed number set by a mathematics department, and it does not move when the admitted class changes. A student compares himself to the range to judge admission and to the threshold to judge placement.
Because most colleges are now test-optional, the ranges that are published describe only the students who chose to submit at all. Students with strong scores submit and students with weak ones don’t, so a published range sits higher than the range for everyone who was actually admitted. More on what SAT score you need for college and on test-optional colleges.
Should You Take the ACT Instead?
Alabama is an ACT state, and seven of the seven universities on this page report an ACT range while six report SAT sections. That is why the table carries an ACT column and is sorted by it.
Every placement chart in the state gives an ACT Math figure beside the SAT Math figure and treats the two as equivalent. Both tests are accepted at every university on the list. A student should take whichever one he scores higher on, and if his list reaches outside the South, the SAT is more common nationally.
Engineering Programs in Nearby States
Alabama borders Georgia, Tennessee, Mississippi and Florida, and Alabama students apply across those lines in numbers even with seven accredited programs at home.
See engineering colleges in Georgia, engineering colleges in Tennessee, and engineering colleges in Mississippi.
Engineering Colleges in Other States
We publish the same breakdown for engineering programs in every state.
See engineering 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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