By Glyn Caddell, BSME · Author of Digital SAT Math Secrets · Tutoring since 2008 — Updated October 24, 2026
Two Nevada universities offer ABET-accredited engineering degrees, and this page lists what they cost and the SAT scores of the students they admit.
Both place students into calculus on the same ACT Math, SAT Math and ALEKS numbers, and those numbers sit above the top quarter of the admitted class at both universities on both tests, a line worked out below the table.
Scores are given by section and the table is sorted by Math, with an ACT Math column added because the calculus line is written on both scales.
Table of Contents
- Nevada Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
- What Score Do You Need to Start in Calculus at UNR or UNLV?
- Which Nevada Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
- What If Your Score Is Below the Line You Want?
Nevada Engineering Colleges by SAT Math Score
The two universities below are the ones in Nevada that hold an ABET-accredited bachelor’s degree in an engineering discipline. They are sorted by the midpoint of the SAT Math range, so the order can be checked from the table itself.
| College | SAT Reading & Writing | SAT Math | ACT composite | ACT Math | Cost of attendance | Undergraduates | Admit rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| University of Nevada, Reno | 540 to 650 | 520 to 640 | 19 to 26 | 17 to 25 | $25,786 | 15,599 | 74% |
| University of Nevada, Las Vegas | 510 to 630 | 500 to 610 | 18 to 25 | 16 to 24 | $19,638 | 24,622 | 96% |
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.
Only universities with an ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degree are listed. The ACT Math column is added on this page because both universities place students into calculus by that score as well as by SAT Math. Nevada State University awards no engineering degree.
Three things about that table are worth pausing on.
Both universities place students into Calculus I on an ACT Math of 28 or an SAT Math of 650, and both ranges in the table end below both numbers. UNR’s ACT Math ceiling is 25 and its SAT Math ceiling is 640. UNLV’s are 24 and 610. The top quarter of the admitted class at either university does not reach the calculus line on either test, and the next section is about what that means.
UNLV’s cost of attendance, $19,638, is the lowest at any public university in this series, below UM-Flint’s $20,915 and St. Cloud State’s $21,116, at a university of 24,622 students that admits 96% of applicants.
The two universities are $170 apart on in-state tuition and $309 apart out of state, in opposite directions. UNR charges a Nevada student less and a New York student more.
A student can see where his score sits in the image above, and where the calculus line sits above all of it.
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University of Nevada, Reno
The University of Nevada, Reno’s College of Engineering holds ABET accreditation in disciplines including biomedical, chemical, civil, computer science and engineering, electrical, environmental, geological, materials, mechanical and mining engineering, and UNR classifies an engineering student who is not enrolled in Calculus I as an undeclared engineering major until he is.
Reading & Writing 540 to 650, Math 520 to 640. ACT composite 19 to 26, ACT Math 17 to 25. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 640 on SAT Math and 25 on ACT Math. Cost of attendance $25,786, with tuition and fees at $9,578 in state and $27,720 out of state. 15,599 undergraduates, 74% admitted.
UNR is the more selective of the two universities by admit rate, the smaller, the more expensive by total cost, and the holder of the state’s mining and geological engineering degrees, which it has taught since the Mackay School of Mines opened in 1908. Its Math ceiling of 640 is 10 points under the calculus line.
University of Nevada, Las Vegas
The University of Nevada, Las Vegas’s Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering holds ABET accreditation in disciplines including civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering, and UNLV lists MATH 126 as the gateway math course for every engineering major and MATH 181 as the highest math course they require.
Reading & Writing 510 to 630, Math 500 to 610. ACT composite 18 to 25, ACT Math 16 to 24. The top quarter of admitted students scored at or above 610 on SAT Math and 24 on ACT Math. Cost of attendance $19,638, with tuition and fees at $9,748 in state and $27,411 out of state. 24,622 undergraduates, 96% admitted.
UNLV is the larger university by 9,000 students, the less selective, and the cheapest public university by total cost in this series. Its Math ceiling of 610 is 40 points under the calculus line and 30 under UNR’s ceiling.
Two ranges say who got in. One number says who starts in calculus, and neither range reaches it.
What Score Do You Need to Start in Calculus at UNR or UNLV?
An ACT Math of 28, an SAT Math of 650 or an ALEKS score of 76 places a student into MATH 181, Calculus I, at both Nevada universities, and the admitted ACT Math and SAT Math ranges at both universities end below those numbers.
UNR’s College of Engineering tells its incoming students the rule directly. A student may enroll in MATH 181 with an ACT Math of 28 or higher, an SAT Math of 650 or higher, an ALEKS score of 76 or higher, a 3 or better on AP Calculus AB or BC, or a 5 or better on IB Higher Level Math. A student who chooses engineering and is not enrolled in MATH 181 “will be classified as an undeclared engineering major,” and he must be enrolled in MATH 181 before he can declare a specific engineering major. The page’s advice to a student below the line is to study for the ALEKS over the summer to reach 76, or to take the math prerequisites in summer session.
UNLV’s placement table gives the same line and the two below it. The table below is UNLV’s three tiers with UNR’s calculus line beside them.
| Course | ACT Math | SAT Math | ALEKS |
|---|---|---|---|
| MATH 181, Calculus I (both universities) | 28 | 650 | 76 |
| MATH 127 or 128, Precalculus (UNLV) | 25 | 580 | 61, with 41 on trigonometry |
| MATH 126, Precalculus I (UNLV) | 23 | 550 | 61 |
UNLV adds that a student below 23, 550 and 61 takes MATH 126 with a corequisite, that a 73% on its Gateway Math Bridge also qualifies for MATH 126, that ALEKS scores are good for two years, and that every engineering major’s gateway course is MATH 126 and highest required course is MATH 181.
Now set the line against the ranges. UNR’s admitted ACT Math range is 17 to 25 and its SAT Math range is 520 to 640. UNLV’s are 16 to 24 and 500 to 610. The 28 is three points above UNR’s ceiling and four above UNLV’s. The 650 is 10 points above UNR’s ceiling and 40 above UNLV’s. At both of Nevada’s engineering colleges, on both tests, a student at the 75th percentile of the admitted class does not start in calculus on his score, and at UNR he cannot declare mechanical, civil or electrical engineering until he is in the course that the top quarter of his class did not reach on the test.
The image above shows that the declared major waits on the course, and the course waits on a number the top quarter does not have.
The series has had lines near the top of a range. Hawaii’s flagship put its bypass at 730, above its 75th percentile at one school on one test, on our page on engineering colleges in Hawaii. Montana State’s 27 and 640 equaled its ceilings on two tests at one school, on our page on engineering colleges in Montana. Nevada is the first state in this series where the calculus line sits above every published range at every engineering school on both tests.
Take a student with a 25 on ACT Math and a 640 on SAT Math. Those are the best scores on the page by the two ranges, at UNR’s 75th percentile on both and above UNLV’s on both. At UNLV his 25 places him into MATH 127 or 128, precalculus, one semester before MATH 181, and his 640 places him in the same course, because the precalculus line is 580 and the calculus line is 650. At UNR the same two scores leave him an undeclared engineering major until he scores 76 on the ALEKS or completes precalculus. The student who outscores three quarters of both admitted classes on both tests starts in precalculus at both universities unless he sits a third exam.
Admission does not do this work in Nevada. UNR admits 74% and UNLV 96%, and the state’s Governor Guinn Millennium Scholarship pays a Nevada resident at either university on a GPA and core curriculum, with the terms on our page on pre-med colleges in Nevada. The scholarship is earned on grades and the calculus seat is earned on a placement exam, so the ACT or SAT a Nevada student carries to Reno or Las Vegas does nearly nothing at either end of his first year. What it does do is tell him, by the ranges above, that the ALEKS is the door almost everyone uses.
The honest version is that a placement line is not a wall and both universities say so. The ALEKS exam is valid for two years at UNLV, UNR tells its students to study for it over the summer, and a 76 on it puts a student in the same MATH 181 section as a student with a 30 on the ACT. The 28 and 650 are placement figures, not admission figures, and both universities admit without them. The page’s point is not that the lines are high. It is that the Scorecard’s ranges tell a Nevada student, before he arrives, that the test he already took is not how he will get into calculus.
Families reading UNR’s advising page frequently ask whether a student can declare his major first and sort out the math later.
Can You Declare an Engineering Major at UNR Before You Are in Calculus?
A student cannot declare a specific engineering major at UNR before he is enrolled in MATH 181. The College of Engineering classifies a student who is not in MATH 181 as an undeclared engineering major and requires enrollment in the course before the declaration.
What gets him into the course is a 28 on ACT Math, a 650 on SAT Math, a 76 on the ALEKS, a 3 on AP Calculus or a 5 on IB Higher Level Math, or a passing grade in precalculus. UNR’s own advice to a student with none of those is to spend the summer before he arrives on the ALEKS, because the declared major and the first engineering courses both wait on the same line.
The two universities’ line is theirs. The degrees are what the next section lists.
Which Nevada Universities Have ABET-Accredited Engineering Schools?
Two Nevada universities hold ABET-accredited engineering bachelor’s degrees, both public, and both are in the table above.
In Reno, UNR’s College of Engineering holds ten disciplines, including the mining and geological engineering degrees of the Mackay School, with the Tesla and Panasonic plants at the Gigafactory and the Switch data center campus east of the city the largest engineering employers in northern Nevada. In Las Vegas, UNLV’s Howard R. Hughes College of Engineering holds civil, computer, electrical and mechanical engineering, in a city whose construction and resort industries hire civil and mechanical engineers in numbers and whose power comes from the dam forty minutes away.
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. Nevada State University in Henderson awards no engineering degree, and the state’s other four-year institutions are health sciences and for-profit colleges that award none.
Nothing on this page ranks the two. The table’s order is a stated, verifiable number, and the choice between two accredited programs comes down to cost, discipline and city.
What If Your Score Is Below the Line You Want?
In Nevada every student’s score is below the line, by the universities’ own published ranges, so the question is not whether to clear 28 or 650 but which of the other doors to use, and both universities name the same one: a 76 on the ALEKS.
The gap most Nevada engineering students face is the one between a 23 or 25 on ACT Math and the material the ALEKS asks about. That material is the algebra, functions and trigonometry of precalculus, the same material a student who placed into MATH 127 would spend a semester on. A summer on it is the difference between declaring a major in August and declaring it in January. A New York student has two ranges and out-of-state tuition of $27,720 at UNR and $27,411 at UNLV, and the Western Undergraduate Exchange rate that cuts those figures for students from western states does not apply to him.
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 against the 650 and against the 580 that places into precalculus.
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 the topics are the ones the ALEKS asks about.
How to Read These Score Ranges
Every range on this page covers the middle 50% of admitted students who submitted the SAT or the ACT. 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.
When a placement line sits above a 75th percentile, “a quarter scored at or above the upper number” means that no quarter reached the line. The range is then telling the reader how the admitted class got into calculus, and the answer is not on the test.
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?
Nevada’s two universities report both tests, and both write their calculus line on both scales, 28 on ACT Math and 650 on SAT Math.
A student should take whichever test he scores higher on, and should know that at either Nevada university the score that matters for his first math course is more likely to come from the ALEKS than from either one.
Engineering Programs in Nearby States
Nevada borders California, Arizona, Utah, Idaho and Oregon, and Nevada students apply across those lines in numbers even with two accredited programs at home.
See engineering colleges in California, engineering colleges in Arizona, and engineering colleges in Utah.
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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