Drake SAT Scores, GPA, and ACT (2026)

The middle 50 percent of Drake SAT scores runs from 1110 to 1350, and the reported average sits at 1292, closer to the top of that band than the bottom. Land anywhere inside that range and your score reads as normal for an admitted Drake student. The higher you sit within it, the less work the rest of your application has to do. Drake University admits 63.9% of applicants, so roughly 2 out of 3 students who apply get in. That is a school where a solid score and solid grades usually carry you through, not a lottery.

Drake is a private nonprofit university in Des Moines, Iowa, with 2,543 undergraduates. That is a small campus, and small schools tend to read applications with actual attention, so a score at 1292 or above gives a real signal rather than getting lost in volume. The section splits are worth noting: Reading and Writing runs 580 to 680 while Math runs 530 to 670, a 50 point gap at the 25th percentile. Drake is test optional in the most recent federal data, based on the 2024-2025 cycle. If your practice tests put you at 1230 or better, sending the score is the obvious move.

Below 1110, you are under the 25th percentile of admitted Drake students. With a 63.9% acceptance rate that is not fatal, and the test optional policy in the most recent federal data means you can simply withhold the score, but you would be leaning entirely on grades and everything else. Inside the 1110 to 1350 range, your score matches the admitted class and stops being a question. Above 1350, you are in the top 25% of Drake admits, and at that point the score becomes an argument in your favor rather than a box checked.

The section splits tell you where the bar sits. Reading and Writing runs 580 to 680, Math runs 530 to 670. The verbal side sets the higher floor by 50 points at the 25th percentile, so a 560 in Reading and Writing drags harder at Drake than a 560 in Math would. ACT applicants face the same shape: 24 to 29 is the middle 50 there.

Admitted students at Drake University typically show an unweighted GPA around 3.3 to 3.7. That band leaves room. A 3.4 with honors and AP courses on the transcript reads better than a 3.6 built from the easiest schedule available, because the rigor of the classes counts as much as the number next to them. Admissions readers at a school of 2,543 undergraduates have time to look at what you actually took.

If your GPA sits at the lower edge of that band, the fastest offset is a strong SAT score. Grades took 3 years to accumulate and cannot be revised. A test score can move in 2 or 3 months of focused prep. A 1350, the top of Drake's middle 50, next to a 3.3 tells a clear story: this student can do the work, whatever the transcript says. That combination is far easier to build in senior fall than a tenth of a point of GPA.

Set 2 targets. First, 1110: at or above the 25th percentile keeps you inside Drake's admitted range, and you should not send a score below it given the test optional policy. Second, 1350: at or above the 75th percentile puts you in the top quarter of Drake admits, which matters at a private school of 2,543 students where applications get read closely. Given the splits, a realistic 1350 build is roughly 680 in Reading and Writing and 670 in Math, right at each section's 75th percentile.

Our score plans break targets like these into a week by week schedule, so a 1180 to 1350 climb stops being a vague hope and becomes a list of specific skills. But sequencing only works if you know your starting point. Take a diagnostic first and see how your current sections stack against 580 and 530. Do that this week, before you decide whether Drake gets your score or your silence.