By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 22, 2026
Five Arizona universities offer ABET-accredited engineering degrees, and this page lists what they cost and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Two of the five, including the one that calls itself the largest engineering college in the United States, report no score range at all, and that one publishes a single admission number in its place. The number and what it does are covered below the table.
Scores are given by section, and the table is sorted by Math because that is the section engineering programs use.
Table of Contents
- Arizona Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
- What SAT Score Does Arizona State’s Engineering College Require?
- Which Arizona Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
- What If Your Score Is Below the Line You Want?
Arizona Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
The five universities below are the ones in Arizona that hold an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. They are sorted by the midpoint of the SAT Math range, with the two that report no range at the bottom.
| College | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Arizona | 580 to 700 | 570 to 720 | $29,423 | 42,537 | 86% |
| Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott | 580 to 680 | 560 to 690 | $62,798 | 3,218 | 77% |
| Grand Canyon University | 518 to 580 | 488 to 533 | $32,702 | 73,371 | 79% |
| Arizona State University | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $30,111 | 64,674 | 90% |
| Northern Arizona University | Does not report SAT data | Does not report SAT data | $29,933 | 22,903 | 90% |
Each range covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT. 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.
Only universities with an ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degree are listed. Online universities, nursing colleges, and engineering technology degrees are left off.
Three things about that table are worth pausing on.
The two largest universities on the page report no range, and one of them is the largest engineering college in the country by its own count. A student cannot place himself against Arizona State or Northern Arizona the way he can against the other three, and for Arizona State there is a different number to use instead.
Embry-Riddle costs more than twice what the University of Arizona costs, $62,798 against $29,423, with a lower Math range. The two schools overlap at the top, and a student at 690 Math is in the top quarter at Embry-Riddle and inside the middle at UA.
UA’s Math 75th percentile of 720 is the highest on the page, and its Math range sits above its Reading & Writing range at the top end. That is the engineering-weighted shape, and UA is the only school on the list with scores where it appears.
A student can see where his Math score sits, and where ASU draws its line, in the image above.
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University of Arizona
The University of Arizona’s College of Engineering in Tucson is the state’s land-grant engineering school and the one Arizona university whose engineering college places students into calculus from an SAT Math score.
Reading & Writing 580 to 700, Math 570 to 720. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 700 and 720. Cost of attendance $29,423, with tuition and fees at $13,926 in-state and $42,278 out-of-state. 42,537 undergraduates, 86% admitted.
UA is the cheapest school on the page by cost of attendance and has the highest Math range. Its out-of-state tuition is the highest of the three public universities by approximately $9,000.
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott campus holds a College of Engineering built around aerospace, and it is the only private non-profit university on this list that reports scores.
Reading & Writing 580 to 680, Math 560 to 690. The top quarter scored at or above 680 and 690. Cost of attendance $62,798, with tuition and fees at $44,149 for all students. 3,218 undergraduates, 77% admitted.
Embry-Riddle is the smallest school on the page, the most expensive, and the most selective by admit rate.
Grand Canyon University
Grand Canyon University’s College of Engineering and Technology in Phoenix holds four ABET-accredited engineering degrees, and Grand Canyon is a private Christian university.
Reading & Writing 518 to 580, Math 488 to 533. The top quarter scored at or above 580 and 533. Cost of attendance $32,702, with tuition and fees at $17,850 for all students. 73,371 undergraduates, 79% admitted.
Grand Canyon has more undergraduates than any other university on the page and the lowest score range. Its mechanical engineering technology degree is accredited under a different ABET commission and is not counted here.
Arizona State University
Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering, on the Tempe and Polytechnic campuses, describe themselves as the largest engineering college in the United States, and ASU reports no admitted score range to the Department of Education.
Cost of attendance $30,111, with tuition and fees at $12,223 in-state and $33,139 out-of-state. 64,674 undergraduates on campus, 90% admitted.
ASU has the lowest in-state tuition on the page. What it publishes in place of a range is a threshold, and that is the next section.
Northern Arizona University
Northern Arizona University’s College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences in Flagstaff holds ABET-accredited degrees in civil, environmental, electrical and mechanical engineering, and NAU reports no admitted score range.
Cost of attendance $29,933, with tuition and fees at $13,009 in-state and $29,881 out-of-state. 22,903 undergraduates, 90% admitted.
NAU admits engineering students on the university’s general standard rather than on a separate engineering one, and it places students into math by assessment after admission.
Three of these five give a range. One gives a line. The line is the number an Arizona engineering applicant most needs to know.
What SAT Score Does Arizona State's Engineering College Require?
Arizona State University’s Fulton Schools of Engineering admit a first-year student to an engineering major on a 1210 SAT or a 24 ACT, or on a 3.00 GPA in ASU competency courses, or on a class rank in the top 25% of his high school, and a student needs only one of the three.
The 1210 is a threshold, not a range. ASU reports no admitted score range to the Department of Education, so there is no middle 50% to compare against, and 1210 is not a percentile of anyone. It is a line the college draws, and ASU’s degree pages say the engineering standard is higher than the university’s minimum admission standard. The same pages add one condition that applies whichever door a student uses: no high school math or science competency deficiencies.
The word that matters is “or”. A student with a 3.2 GPA in competency courses and no test score at all is admitted to a Fulton engineering major. A student with a 2.8 and a 1210 is admitted. A student with a 2.8 and an 1180 is not admitted to the engineering major, though he may well be admitted to ASU. The SAT is the door for the student whose grades fall short of 3.00 and whose rank falls outside the top quarter, and only for him.
The image above shows the three criteria as what they are, one of three doors, not all three.
Admission is the first use of the score at ASU, and it is the only one. Every incoming student takes the ALEKS math placement assessment, and the assessment alone decides the first math course. MAT 265, Calculus for Engineers I, needs an ALEKS score of 76. MAT 171, Pre-Calculus for Engineers, needs 61. Fulton’s own advising page says that starting in MAT 265 rather than MAT 171 is what puts a student on track to graduate in four years. The SAT does nothing here. At ASU the score can get a student into the college and cannot get him into calculus.
The University of Arizona is the reverse. Admission to its College of Engineering is test-optional with a minimum 3.0 core GPA as the Arizona Board of Regents defines it, and an applicant without a score is not penalized. The score matters after admission. UA’s mathematics department places first-year students into courses up to Calculus I from an SAT Math or ACT Math score, provided the test was taken in August 2024 or later, with its PPL placement assessment as the alternative route. The cutoffs are on the department’s placement chart. At UA the score does nothing for admission and can put a student straight into calculus.
Embry-Riddle’s catalog says a student demonstrates mathematics proficiency by qualifying SAT or ACT scores before registration, without publishing the scores. Northern Arizona places by assessment.
So the two flagships use the same score in opposite places. A student who has been told the SAT matters in Arizona, or that it doesn’t, has been told something true about one of them.
Students reading the ASU criteria frequently ask whether they need to test at all.
Does a Student Need an SAT Score to Get Into Engineering at ASU?
A student does not need an SAT score to get into an engineering major at ASU. A 3.00 GPA in ASU competency courses admits him without any test, and so does a class rank in the top 25%.
The score is the route for a student below 3.00 and outside the top quarter, and for him it has to be 1210 combined, not a Math section on its own. Thirty points between 1180 and 1210 can come from either section, and the way to find them is on our page on how to improve your SAT score.
The thresholds belong to the universities. The degrees they lead to are what the next section covers.
Which Arizona Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
Five Arizona universities hold ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degrees, and all five are in the table above.
Arizona State University’s Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering span the Tempe and Polytechnic campuses with more than twenty undergraduate engineering degrees, aerospace, biomedical, chemical, civil, computer systems, electrical, industrial, materials and mechanical among them, and the Phoenix area’s semiconductor plants are the employers closest to campus. The University of Arizona’s College of Engineering in Tucson holds the state’s mining and optical engineering degrees alongside the standard disciplines, and the aerospace and defense employers in Tucson sit beside it. Northern Arizona University’s college in Flagstaff holds civil, environmental, electrical and mechanical engineering. Embry-Riddle’s Prescott campus holds aerospace, mechanical, electrical, computer and software engineering. Grand Canyon University’s College of Engineering and Technology in Phoenix holds biomedical, electrical and mechanical engineering and an engineering degree with a robotics emphasis.
Accreditation matters for a reason that is easy to miss at seventeen. Licensure as a professional engineer normally requires a degree from an ABET-accredited engineering program, and that is why Grand Canyon’s mechanical engineering technology degree, accredited under ABET’s technology commission, is not on this list.
Nothing on this page ranks the five. The table’s order is a stated, verifiable number, and the choice among accredited programs comes down to cost, discipline and where a student’s score places him.
What If Your Scores Are Below the Range You Want?
An Arizona engineering applicant can be facing a threshold, a range or a placement line, and each one is a different kind of target for the same SAT score.
A threshold is cleared or not. ASU’s 1210 is one, and a student who is below 3.00 and outside the top quarter either reaches it or does not. A range is a probability. UA’s 570 to 720 Math says where admitted students landed, and a student inside it is a target applicant rather than a sure one. A placement line decides a first semester. UA’s calculus cutoff is one, and a student just under it starts in precalculus unless the placement assessment moves him.
For the ASU student below 3.00, thirty points between 1180 and 1210 is the whole problem, and because the threshold is a combined score, either section can supply them. For the UA student, the Math section alone decides placement. The first step in both cases is finding out where the score actually is, section by section, and a free diagnostic SAT gives that.
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 30 to 70 points in weeks rather than months. The method is on our page on improving your SAT score.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT. 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.
This page carries three different kinds of number. A published range, at UA, Embry-Riddle and Grand Canyon, is a percentile of admitted students. A published threshold, ASU’s 1210, is a fixed line. A blank, at ASU and NAU, means the university reported nothing to the Department of Education, not that it does not use scores.
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?
ASU treats a 24 ACT as equivalent to a 1210 SAT, and the three Arizona universities that report scores report both tests. Arizona is a mixed state rather than an ACT state, and a student should take whichever test he scores higher on.
For the ASU threshold the two tests are interchangeable by rule. For UA’s placement the Math section of either test is accepted.
Engineering Programs in Nearby States
Arizona borders California, Nevada, Utah, Colorado and New Mexico, and Arizona students apply across those lines in numbers even with five accredited programs at home.
See engineering colleges in New Mexico, engineering colleges in Utah, and engineering colleges in California.
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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