Which Colleges Require the SAT or ACT?

If your student is applying this fall — fall 2026 applications, for entry in fall 2027 — six of the eight Ivies require an SAT or ACT score: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale. So do MIT, Caltech, Stanford, Georgetown, UT Austin, and every public university in Florida. Princeton and Columbia are test-optional for this cycle only; both begin requiring scores in the 2027–28 cycle, meaning students who apply in fall 2027 for entry in fall 2028. The nine University of California campuses will not look at a score at all.

Outside that group, most American colleges are still test-optional, and a lot of them intend to stay that way. The reversal is real but concentrated: it is largely the most selective private universities and a handful of large public systems, not the whole country. Below is the current picture, verified against each school's own admissions page rather than a list, along with the reason those lists go wrong so often.

Which colleges require the SAT or ACT right now?

For applicants in the 2026–27 cycle, each of these states the requirement on its own admissions site:

• Harvard — "Harvard requires the SAT or ACT to meet its standardized testing requirement," with alternatives such as AP or A-Level results accepted only where test access is genuinely limited. (application requirements)
• Yale — "All first-year and transfer applicants must include scores from the ACT or SAT." (standardized testing)
• Brown — required "beginning with the 2024-25 admission cycle." (standardized tests)
• Cornell — "You're required to submit SAT or ACT scores when applying to Cornell." (first-year applicants)
• Penn — required, with a hardship waiver available in the application. (testing)
• Dartmouth — required for students who attend high school in the United States, reinstated "beginning with applicants to the Class of 2029." (testing policy)
• MIT — MIT's own 2025-26 Common Data Set, which reports policy for fall 2027 admission, marks the SAT or ACT "required to be considered for admission."
• Caltech — "Caltech requires first-year applicants to submit either the SAT or the ACT." (standardized tests)
• Stanford — "ACT or SAT scores are required," after several test-optional years that ended with the Class of 2030. (testing)
• Georgetown — "Georgetown requires submission of either SAT or ACT scores as part of the application process." (application requirements)
• UT Austin — required beginning with applications for fall 2025.
• Florida's public universities — the State University System requires a test score, and accepts the SAT, ACT, or CLT. (undergraduate admissions)

Which colleges are test-optional now but require scores soon?

This is where dates matter more than anything else on this page, because a student one year older than yours may face a different rule.

• Princeton is test-optional for the 2026–27 cycle. It returns to requiring scores "beginning with the 2027-28 admission cycle," for applicants "seeking to enroll in fall 2028."
• Columbia is likewise test-optional this cycle and reinstates the requirement "effective August 2027 for the 2027-2028 admission cycle," with a waiver available for applicants who face hardship. (testing policy)
• Vanderbilt stays test-optional longer than either: optional "for students applying for undergraduate admission to the classes entering in the fall of 2027 or 2028," required for students applying for fall 2029. (testing policies)

The trap here is cycle labels, and it catches professional publications regularly. The "2027–28 application cycle" means applying in fall 2027 for entry in fall 2028. A senior applying this November is in Princeton's and Columbia's last test-optional year — not their first required one. If you read a page that describes those schools as test-required today, it is describing a rule that has not started yet.

Which colleges ignore scores entirely?

A test-optional school will read a score if you send one. A test-blind school will not, and the distinction changes what you should do with a mediocre result.

The University of California is the significant one. UC's application instructions state plainly that "UC will not consider SAT or ACT test scores when making admissions decisions or awarding scholarships," though submitted scores "may be used as an alternative method of fulfilling minimum requirements for eligibility or for course placement after you enroll." (filling out the application)

That covers all nine undergraduate campuses. For a student whose list is mostly UC, a test score is worth taking only for the placement and eligibility uses — it cannot help the admission decision.

What about public universities?

Public systems set policy centrally, which makes them easy to get wrong in both directions.

Florida requires scores system-wide. The State University System describes itself as the largest system in the country still requiring an entrance exam, and it accepts the CLT alongside the SAT and ACT.

Georgia does not, despite how often it is described that way. The University System of Georgia has run a temporary test-optional waiver covering most of its institutions, with a short list of exceptions that changes year to year. For academic year 2025-26 the exceptions were Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, and Georgia College and State University; for 2026-27 the system's published requirements add Georgia State, Augusta, Kennesaw State, and Georgia Southern. For academic year 2027-28 — the year current seniors would enter — that announcement so far addresses only the CLT, so the institution list has to be read off the individual campus page.

Worth knowing separately: Georgia's Zell Miller scholarship requires test scores regardless of whether the college does. Test-optional admission and test-optional money are different questions, and the money question is the one families discover late.

Does "required" mean the same thing everywhere?

No, and the differences are practical rather than academic.

Some requirements come with a waiver. Penn grants one for hardship such as lack of a test center or financial difficulty — but notes that applicants who have already taken a test are required to submit those scores. Columbia will offer a waiver when its requirement begins. A waiver is not a quiet opt-out; it is a request you make and explain.

Some accept substitutes, but only for some students. Dartmouth allows applicants at schools outside the U.S. to satisfy the requirement with three AP exams, IB results, A-Levels, or an equivalent national exam. Yale does not: AP and IB scores may be included "along with your ACT or SAT score(s)," not instead of them.

The last usable test date differs by school. Yale states that October and November sittings are generally available for its early round, and January or February for Regular Decision. Stanford's cutoff is earlier — ACT by the end of September and SAT by the end of October for Restrictive Early Action. Columbia allows tests as late as November for Early Decision and February for Regular Decision. If a student is planning one more attempt, the binding constraint is the earliest deadline on the list, not the average one.

Superscoring is not universal. Brown, Columbia, Yale, and Caltech superscore. Georgetown asks for at least one full test and does not.

How should I check the schools on my list?

Build the list first, then check policy per school. Four questions answer it:

1. Is a score required, optional, or not considered? Read it on the college's own admissions site. Aggregated lists are the single most common source of the error, because they are usually a year stale.
2. Which cycle does the policy apply to? Match the wording to your student's entry year, not to the current calendar year.
3. If required, is there a waiver, and what substitutes are accepted?
4. Do scholarships or honors programs require a score even if admission does not? This is where a test-optional school can still cost you money.

Then work backward from the earliest deadline. Registration for a national SAT or ACT closes roughly three to five weeks before the test, so the decision to sit one more exam has to happen well before the test date itself. Our senior year application timeline lays out the fall test dates alongside the Common App, FAFSA, and early deadlines they have to fit around.

What this means for the next few months

For most families the honest answer is that one or two schools on the list drive the entire testing decision. If a required school is on it, a score is not optional in any useful sense, and the fall calendar has to be built around a specific test date. If the list is all test-optional or test-blind, the hours are better spent on essays.

Where a test is in play, the constraint is rarely knowledge — it is getting short, repeated practice to actually happen across a busy fall. Practice questions decompose into one-minute units, which makes them one of the few academic tasks that fit into the gaps in a day rather than requiring a cleared evening. That is the logic behind using the phone as the reward rather than the default, and it works better for test prep than for essays, which need real uninterrupted blocks and are much harder to protect from the pull of an infinite feed.

Whichever bucket the list falls into, verify it against the school's own page before the end of September. Registration deadlines close first, and they do not move.