Updated August 2026 by Carson Flowers.
The short answer: New College's Fall 2026 admitted students posted an SAT range of 1100 to 1320. It is Florida's designated public honors college, tiny at about 800 students, and test scores are required like everywhere in the State University System.
| SAT range | 1100 to 1320 (Fall 2026 admitted students; a small pool, so treat the range as directional) |
| ACT range | 22 to 29 |
| Weighted GPA | 3.7 to 4.4 |
| Acceptance rate | about 73% (1,623 applicants, 1,188 admitted; prior-cycle institutional data) |
| Test required | Yes. SAT, ACT, or CLT. No test-optional path. |
Data from New College of Florida's published Fall 2026 admitted-student figures and the Florida Department of Education's Bright Futures scholarship award chart. The acceptance-rate counts come from older institutional reporting. Reviewed August 2026. Numbers move every cycle, so confirm current figures with New College Admissions before relying on any summary, ours included.
New College in Sarasota is unlike anything else in the state system: about 800 students, seminar-style classes, and narrative evaluations alongside traditional academics. For the right student, it offers honors-college attention at a public price. Because the applicant pool is tiny, year-to-year numbers swing more than at the big universities, which is why the published range works better as a compass than as a cutoff.
At 1200 and up a student sits comfortably in the pool. Above 1320 they lead it, which at a school this small gets noticed in scholarship decisions.
Both awards are in play here. The Medallion score of 1190 sits inside the range and covers 75% of tuition, about $4,786 per year. The Academic Scholars score of 1330 sits just above the published top of the range: a student who reaches it leads the applicant pool and takes 100% of tuition, about $6,381 per year, with them. (For students graduating in 2028 or later, the lines rise to 1350 for Academic Scholars and 1200 for Medallion; details in our handbook walkthrough.)
Families see 1100 to 1320 and treat the endpoints as walls. With a pool of about 800 students total, the numbers are directional, and a single incoming class can move them noticeably. What holds steady is the logic: standing out matters more at a small school, not less. A student above 1320 leads the pool, and at a campus where the admissions office can read every file closely, leading the pool translates into scholarship attention faster than it would at a university of 50,000.
No. New College requires an SAT, ACT, or CLT score from every applicant. Its honors-college format does not exempt it from the State University System's testing rule. Scores sit alongside seminar-style evaluation of the whole file, so the number still frames the first impression.
New College's Fall 2026 admitted students posted an SAT range of 1100 to 1320. The pool is small, roughly 800 students campus-wide, so treat the range as directional rather than a hard boundary. At 1200 and up a student sits comfortably among admits.
Because the pool is tiny. With about 800 students total, one class can shift the published statistics. Small denominators move more than large ones, which is why we read New College's figures as a compass heading. The stable fact is that scores above the published top consistently lead the pool.
Yes. The 1190 Medallion score sits inside the admitted range, and the 1330 Academic Scholars score sits just above its published top. A student who reaches 1330 leads the applicant pool while carrying 100% of tuition, about $6,381 per year. At a school this small, that combination gets noticed.
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Considering other small or honors-style programs? See Florida Poly, UF, and UNF.
At Florida public universities, a 1330 SAT (Florida Academic Scholars) pays 100% of tuition and applicable fees, about $6,381 per year. A 1190 (Medallion) pays 75%. Check your teen's eligibility with the free calculator.
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