The middle 50% of enrolled University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students who submitted an ACT scored between 30 and 34, and the midpoint of that reported range is 32. That is a 4-point band sitting high on the scale, so the 75th percentile of 34 is only 2 points from the top of the test. The university admits 42% of applicants overall and enrolls 36,258 undergraduates in Champaign, Illinois. Below is what each of those figures does and does not tell you about your own score.
The US Department of Education College Scorecard, drawing on IPEDS, reports three ACT composite figures for University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign from its most recent reported cohort. Those figures describe students who enrolled and submitted an ACT score. They do not describe the applicant pool, and they do not include students who were admitted and went somewhere else.
| Figure | Value | What it actually says |
|---|---|---|
| ACT composite, 25th percentile | 30 | 25% of enrolled ACT submitters scored at or below 30, so about 75% scored above it |
| Reported midpoint | 32 | The midpoint of the reported range, not a verified median or mean |
| ACT composite, 75th percentile | 34 | 75% scored at or below 34, so roughly the top quarter scored above it |
| Width of the middle 50% | 4 points | The full span from the 25th percentile to the 75th |
| Room left above the 75th percentile | 2 points | The distance from 34 to 36, the top of the composite scale |
Read both ends together rather than fixating on the 32. A quarter of the enrolled class that submitted a score came in at 30 or lower. A quarter came in above 34. The four points in between hold the middle half of that group. None of these three numbers is a cutoff, a minimum, or a requirement, because a percentile describes where a group landed and nothing more.
Four points is a tight band, and at this altitude it is tight in a particular way: the 75th percentile of 34 sits only 2 points below the 36 ceiling. The top of the distribution has almost nowhere to spread, so the reported range compresses upward against the end of the scale.
Two things follow from that shape. First, individual points carry more weight than they would in a wide band. Moving from 30 to 32 is not a small nudge here, it is a move from the 25th percentile line to the reported midpoint, which covers half the band. Second, there is very little space above 34 to separate scores. From the reported midpoint to a perfect composite is a total of 4 points.
Picture a school with a 7-point band instead. There, students sit across a long stretch of the scale and a 2-point difference is a modest slice of the range. At Illinois, 2 points is half of the reported middle 50%. That is the practical reason to be precise about where you currently stand before deciding what to do next.
Compression cuts the other way too. A tight band means most of the enrolled group clustered close together, so being a point or two off the midpoint puts you among plenty of company rather than in unfamiliar territory. Our guide to reading ACT scores walks through how percentiles behave near the top of the scale.
The overall admission rate is 42%, and the university enrolls 36,258 undergraduates. Both figures are useful, and both are easy to misread.
Start with what 42% is not. It is not your personal chance of admission. It is one ratio computed across an entire applicant pool of people with different transcripts, different course loads, and different applications. Nothing in that single number can be divided down to an individual. A reader with a 33 and a reader with a 27 do not each face a 42% outcome, and neither of them can compute their odds from this page.
The enrollment figure changes how much confidence the percentiles deserve. With 36,258 undergraduates, the middle 50% is an enormous group of real students. Score bands reported by very small colleges can swing from year to year because a few students move the count. A distribution built on a student body this large is comparatively stable, so treat 30 to 34 as a solid description of the group rather than a fragile snapshot.
Put the two together and the honest summary is this: a 42% rate at a school of this size describes a large and varied pool, and the ACT band is one column in a much wider table. For how to line score data up across a list of schools, see comparing ACT scores by college.
Here is where a given composite falls relative to the reported figures. Every row is a position statement, not a prediction, and no row tells you what will happen to your application.
| Your composite | Position in the reported band | Honest reading |
|---|---|---|
| 35 to 36 | Above the 75th percentile | In the narrow 2-point strip that sits above 34 |
| 34 | At the 75th percentile | 75% of enrolled ACT submitters scored at or below this |
| 32 to 33 | Upper half of the middle 50% | At or above the reported midpoint of 32 |
| 30 to 31 | Lower half of the middle 50% | Inside the reported band, at or just above the 25th percentile |
| 29 or below | Below the reported middle 50% | Enrolled students scored here, since 25% came in at or below 30, but this sits under the 25th percentile line |
Two cautions about the bottom row. The data does not say how far below 30 that quarter extends, so nobody can tell you the lowest score in the enrolled class. And the data covers enrolled students who submitted a score, which is a different group from everyone who applied.
If you are working from a raw practice test rather than a reported composite, convert it first with the free ACT score calculator so you are comparing the same kind of number.
On the Enhanced ACT 2025 format, the composite is the average of three scores: English, Math, and Reading. Science is optional and reported separately, so it does not enter the composite at all. The section structure is English 50 questions in 35 minutes, Math 45 questions in 50 minutes, Reading 36 questions in 40 minutes, and Science 40 questions in 40 minutes if you take it. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, so leaving a bubble blank is strictly worse than guessing.
Because the composite is an average of three numbers, gaining 1 composite point takes roughly 3 additional points spread across English, Math, and Reading. Apply that to this band and the arithmetic gets concrete. Moving from the 25th percentile of 30 to the reported midpoint of 32 means finding about 6 section points in total, for instance 2 in each of the three scored sections.
That is a target you can actually plan against, and it is why timed practice matters more than untimed review at this level. Prep36 gives you the full bank of 1,026 original practice questions free, with an instant explanation on every answer. Six full-length timed forms exist and two are free. There is also a free study plan builder and a free score forecast. Start with practice tests, then work through how to improve an ACT score. Format details live in the Enhanced ACT 2025 guide, and the free Cram Kit covers the last stretch.
The dataset behind this page contains seven things: the ACT composite 25th percentile, the reported midpoint, the 75th percentile, the overall admission rate, undergraduate enrollment, and the city and state. Everything absent from that list is absent from this page on purpose.
If you plan to test more than once, read how superscoring works for the general mechanics, then confirm with the university how it treats multiple sittings, since that is a policy question this data cannot answer. Build your calendar backward from the test dates and set the routine with how to study for the ACT. Prep36 is not affiliated with ACT, Inc., and our practice questions are original, not official ACT questions.
A composite is not a number you score directly. On the Enhanced ACT it is the average of English, Math and Reading, so reaching one means hitting that scaled score across three sections. Science is optional and reported separately, so it is left out here.
Below is what each scaled score actually costs in correct answers, and how many questions you can afford to miss to still land on it.
| Section | For a 30 | For a 32 | For a 34 |
|---|---|---|---|
| English 50 questions | 45 of 50 miss up to 5 | 46 of 50 miss up to 4 | 47 of 50 miss up to 3 |
| Math 45 questions | 36 of 45 miss up to 9 | 38 of 45 miss up to 7 | 41 of 45 miss up to 4 |
| Reading 36 questions | 31 of 36 miss up to 5 | 32 of 36 miss up to 4 | 33 of 36 miss up to 3 |
Read this correctly. These are not section targets for this school. The College Scorecard reports composite percentiles only, with no section-level data, so nobody can tell you what English or Math score this school expects. What the table shows is the raw cost of a 30 and a 34 in each section, whoever you are aiming at. Build your own section goals from your own practice results.
Turn your practice raw scores into a composite with the free ACT score calculator, then drill the sections costing you the most in the free question bank.
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