Biola SAT Scores, GPA, and ACT (2026)

The section split tells you where Biola SAT scores lean: admitted students land between 600 and 700 in Reading and Writing but between 560 and 670 in Math, a 40 point gap at the top of each range. Anyone researching Biola SAT scores should start with those two numbers, because the verbal side clearly sets the higher bar here. Put together, the middle 50 percent of the composite runs from 1160 to 1370, and the average sits at 1261 in the 2024-2025 data. A 1261 average means plenty of admitted students score in the 1100s, so this is not a school where only 1400 plus applicants get in.

Biola University is a private nonprofit university in La Mirada, CA, with 3,474 undergraduates, small enough that the admissions office reads each file rather than sorting by formula. The admission rate is 74.4%, so roughly 3 out of 4 applicants receive an offer. Testing is optional in the most recent federal data, which means you choose whether your score goes in the file. That choice matters: with an acceptance rate this high, a score above 1261 is not a lottery ticket, it is a straightforward way to stand out from the pool and to strengthen a merit aid case.

Below 1160, you are under the 25th percentile, and at a test optional school the math is simple: do not submit. A 1120 adds nothing to your file that your transcript cannot say better. Inside the 1160 to 1370 range, you look like a typical admitted student, and the closer you sit to 1370, the more the score helps rather than merely not hurting. Above 1370, you are in the top quarter of admitted testers, which at a 74.4% admit rate shifts the question from getting in to what merit money looks like.

Check your sections separately, because Biola's bars are not symmetric. Reading and Writing runs 600 to 700 while Math runs 560 to 670. A 650 is a solid verbal result but a strong Math one. If your composite is balanced at, say, 630 and 630, your Math score is already near the 75th percentile while your verbal score is only mid range. Push the verbal side first.

Admitted students at Biola typically present an unweighted GPA around 3.3 to 3.7. That is a band, not a cutoff, and where you fall inside it matters less than what sits behind the number. A 3.4 built on honors and AP coursework reads stronger than a 3.6 built on the lightest schedule your school offers. Admissions readers weigh the rigor of the classes as much as the grade attached to them, so keep taking the harder option where you can hold at least a B.

If your GPA sits at the lower edge of that band, the fastest offset is a strong SAT. Grades take semesters to move. A test score can move in weeks. At a test optional school like Biola, a submitted score above the 1261 average does real work for a 3.3 student: it tells the committee the transcript understates what you can do. Aim to pair the GPA you have with the highest score you can produce, then submit it.

Set 2 concrete targets. First, 1160: at or above the 25th percentile keeps you inside the admitted range and makes submitting worthwhile. Second, 1370: at or above the 75th percentile puts you in the top quarter of testers, which is where merit aid conversations get easier at a school that admits 74.4% of applicants. By section, that means pushing Reading and Writing toward 700 and Math toward 670. Our score plans map a week by week route from your current score to either target, so you are not guessing at what to study.

The honest starting point is knowing your number today. Take a diagnostic under timed conditions and score it against the 1160 to 1370 range. If you land at 1240, you need about 130 points to reach the top quarter, a realistic gain over a few months of steady work. Sit down this week, take the diagnostic, and write your gap to 1370 at the top of your study plan.