It is extremely important to understand the difference between having a score that is the average for enrolled students and the actual likelihood of a student with that score being admitted.
I don’t think Harvard and Yale break that down, but Stanford and Brown do.
For reports I’ve seen from Stanford, their middle 50% ACT ranges from 31-35, and I’ve seen the average reported as 33. 80% of their enrolled students fall between 30-36. So that looks comfortable if you’re rocking a 32, right? Not really. Of all the students who applied with scores between 30 and 36, they accepted a whopping … wait for it … 3%.
http:// admission.stanford.edu /basics/selection/profile.html
Brown’s percentages, as noted above, are a bit more generous, but still daunting for someone with a 32, and you can extrapolate from there.
https:// www.brown.edu /admission/undergraduate/explore/admission-facts
Doesn’t mean you’re locked out, but they’re going to be looking at a LOT of factors, and everybody on this board with any experience in this process is going to suggest you consider your odds very slim and start looking enthusiastically at some of the other hundreds of excellent schools out there.