The middle 50% of University of Nebraska-Lincoln students who enrolled and submitted an ACT scored between 22 and 28 on the composite, and the reported midpoint is 25. That band is 6 points wide, wide enough that a 23 and a 27 both sit inside the same middle half. The overall admission rate is 87%, an institution-wide figure, and 19,178 undergraduates are enrolled. Below is each number, what population it actually describes, and the one thing the midpoint of 25 quietly reveals about how it was calculated.
Every number on this page comes from the US Department of Education College Scorecard, which draws on IPEDS, for the most recent reported cohort. There are six figures in total. The table below is the entire dataset, and nothing else on this page goes beyond it.
| Figure | Value | What it counts |
|---|---|---|
| ACT composite, 25th percentile | 22 | 25% of enrolled students who submitted an ACT scored at or below 22, so about 75% scored above it |
| Reported midpoint | 25 | The reported midpoint of the reported range, not a verified midpoint of the reported range |
| ACT composite, 75th percentile | 28 | 75% scored at or below 28, so roughly the top quarter scored above it |
| Width of the middle 50% | 6 points | The distance from 22 up to 28 |
| Overall admission rate | 87% | Institution-wide, across all applicants. Never a personal probability |
| Undergraduate enrollment | 19,178 | Size of the undergraduate student body |
Two facts about the group being measured, because they limit what the percentiles can mean. First, they cover students who enrolled and submitted an ACT. Applicants who were not admitted are not in the group, students who were admitted and chose a different school are not in it, and anyone who enrolled without sending a score is not in it either. Second, no percentile here is a cutoff, a minimum, or a bar to clear. Each one is a marker describing where scores landed in a class that already exists.
Add 22 and 28 and you get 50. Half of 50 is 25, which is exactly the reported midpoint. That is not a coincidence, and noticing it is the most useful thing on this page.
The midpoint is derived from the two ends of the reported range. It is not a median computed from thousands of individual composites, so it carries no information that the 22 and the 28 did not already carry. Give anyone the band and they can rebuild the midpoint with one addition and one division.
What follows from that: 25 is not the average score at Nebraska, not the typical score, and not the score half the class beat. The true median of enrolled composites might sit at 24, or 25, or 26. This data does not say, because the shape of the distribution inside the band is not reported. Scores could bunch up near 23 or lean toward 27 and these six figures would look identical either way.
So reason from the endpoints instead. 22 marks the bottom quarter line, 28 marks the top quarter line, and the space between them is a span you know half the reported class occupied without knowing how they were spread across it. For how colleges publish these ranges in general, see college ACT score ranges, and for what a composite is built from, see how ACT scores work.
Two boundaries, three slices. This is the same six numbers arranged by share of the group rather than by label.
| Reported composite | Approximate share of the group | Why the line sits there |
|---|---|---|
| 22 or below | About 25% | 22 is the 25th percentile, so a quarter of the reported scores were at or under it |
| Between 22 and 28 | About 50% | The middle half, 6 points wide |
| Above 28 | About 25% | 28 is the 75th percentile, so roughly a quarter sat above it |
Six points is a moderate width, and moderate has a concrete consequence: scores that feel very different from each other still land inside the same slice. A 23 is inside the band. So is a 27, four points higher. If the reported band were 26 to 28 instead, that 23 would fall below the bottom quarter line and the whole picture would change. It is not, so a 23 sits inside with room underneath it.
Two practical moves come out of that. Aim at a range rather than a single number, since any one test day can shift a composite a point or two, and a target of 24 to 26 survives one bad Reading passage in a way that a target of exactly 25 does not. And take a 2 or 3 point gain seriously, because in a 6-point band that is real distance: moving 22 to 25 carries you a third of the way across the middle half. The mechanics are in how to improve an ACT score.
Nebraska's overall admission rate is 87%. Read plainly, that means roughly 87 of every 100 applicants to the institution were admitted in the reported year. It is a description of the university's decisions in aggregate.
It is not your chance of getting in. A rate has no knowledge of who you are, what you scored, what you wrote, or which program you applied to, so it cannot be handed to one person as a probability. If someone tells you an 87% rate means you personally have an 87% shot, they have turned a fact about a crowd into a forecast about an individual, and the number does not support that in either direction.
It also says nothing about testing policy. This dataset holds percentiles, a rate, and an enrollment count. Whether a score is required, optional, or weighted heavily is not in it, and this page will not guess. Nebraska's own admissions office is the place for that.
Worth pairing the rate with the enrollment figure: 19,178 undergraduates. A student body that size means the reported band is summarizing thousands of individual composites from many different kinds of students. A range built out of that many people is broad by nature. Reading a broad descriptive range as a narrow gate mistakes what it is.
Sit a full-length timed form, score it, then find your row. The last column is about what to do next, not about what will happen to you, because this data cannot tell you that.
| Practice composite | Position against the reported figures | Reasonable next step |
|---|---|---|
| 21 or below | Below the reported 25th percentile of 22 | Work the section that is costing you the most, then retest |
| 22 to 24 | Inside the band, in its lower half | Chase 2 or 3 points with targeted drilling |
| 25 | Level with the reported midpoint, which is only the halfway point of the range | Confirm it with a second timed form before you trust it |
| 26 to 27 | Inside the band, above the reported midpoint | Protect it with timing practice, since pacing errors cost the most here |
| 28 | Level with the reported 75th percentile line | Keep sitting timed forms to hold the score steady |
| 29 or above | Above the reported band entirely | Maintain, and spend your time on the rest of the application |
Two cautions. A single practice score is a noisy estimate, so take two or three timed forms and treat the average as your working number rather than the best result. Use the free ACT score calculator to convert raw counts into a composite so you are comparing like with like against 22, 25, and 28. If you expect to test more than once, ACT superscoring explains how a best-section combination is built, though whether Nebraska will use one is a question only Nebraska can answer.
The 2025 Enhanced ACT is a shorter test than the one most older prep books describe. English is 50 questions in 35 minutes, Math is 45 in 50 minutes, Reading is 36 in 40 minutes. Science is optional and reported separately, so the composite is the average of English, Math, and Reading. There is no penalty for a wrong answer, which makes a blank strictly worse than a guess. The full format breakdown is in the Enhanced ACT 2025 guide.
What Prep36 gives you at no cost: the entire bank of 1,026 original practice questions, each with an instant explanation the moment you answer, so you learn why you missed something while you still remember what you were thinking. Six full-length timed forms exist and two of them are free, which is enough to place yourself honestly against 22, 25, and 28. There is also a free score calculator, a study plan builder, a score forecast, and the Enhanced ACT Cram Kit. These are original Prep36 questions, not official ACT questions, and Prep36 is not affiliated with ACT, Inc.
A workable sequence for a 22 to 25 move: one timed form to set a baseline, two or three weeks of targeted work on your weakest scored section, then a second timed form to see whether the work moved anything. How to study for the ACT lays out the schedule, taking a practice test properly covers the conditions that make a score trustworthy, and ACT test dates lets you count backwards from a real one.
Several things you might expect on a school page are missing here, and the reason is the same each time: they are not in the six numbers, so putting them on the page would mean inventing them.
What is here: 22, 25, 28, a width of 6 points, an 87% institution-wide admission rate, 19,178 undergraduates, and a careful reading of each one. For the same treatment of other schools, start at college ACT scores. To find out where you actually stand today, the question bank at Prep36 is free to open and every answer explains itself.
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 22 | For a 25 | For a 28 |
|---|---|---|---|
| English 50 questions | 34 of 50 miss up to 16 | 39 of 50 miss up to 11 | 42 of 50 miss up to 8 |
| Math 45 questions | 25 of 45 miss up to 20 | 28 of 45 miss up to 17 | 33 of 45 miss up to 12 |
| Reading 36 questions | 23 of 36 miss up to 13 | 26 of 36 miss up to 10 | 29 of 36 miss up to 7 |
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 22 and a 28 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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