Test-optional or test-required? SAT policies at top US universities for Fall 2027

Test policies change from year to year, and many websites are out of date. On November 6, 2026 we checked the official admissions pages of 150 of the most selective and most-applied US universities. This article covers the 2026-27 cycle: students applying now for entry in Fall 2027. Every school below links to its own page in the sources list. Policies can change after we checked, so confirm on the official page before you apply.

The four kinds of policy

• Required. You must submit SAT or ACT scores. Some schools also accept the CLT.
• Test-optional. You decide whether to send scores. If you send them, they are considered.
• Test-blind (test-free). Scores are not used for admission, even if you send them.
• Conditional. Scores are optional only for some applicants, for example above a GPA threshold.

Universities that require the SAT or ACT for Fall 2027

These universities require scores, according to their official pages:

University	What the official page says
MIT	SAT or ACT required. Test before Nov. 30 for Early Action and Dec. 31 for Regular Action.
Harvard	SAT or ACT required. AP, IB, A-Level or national exams substitute only in exceptional cases where the SAT/ACT is inaccessible.
Yale	ACT or SAT required. AP/IB can be added but do not replace them.
Stanford	ACT or SAT required. English proficiency tests cannot replace them.
Caltech	SAT or ACT required for fall 2027 applicants.
Brown	SAT or ACT required since the 2024-25 cycle.
Penn	SAT or ACT required for the 2026-27 cycle from all first-year applicants, including international. A hardship testing waiver exists.
Dartmouth	SAT or ACT required for applicants at US high schools. Applicants at schools outside the US may instead use three AP exams, or predicted or final IB, A-Level or national exam results.
Cornell	SAT or ACT required.
Johns Hopkins	SAT or ACT required.
Georgetown	At least one full SAT or ACT required, international students included.
Carnegie Mellon	Computer Science requires the SAT or ACT. Most other colleges are "test flexible": scores are required, but they can be AP, IB, A-Level or French Bac. Fine Arts is test-optional.
Georgia Tech	At least one SAT or ACT required, international students included.
UT Austin	At least one official SAT or ACT required (CLT also accepted), international students included.
University of Florida, Florida State, UCF, USF, FAMU	SAT, ACT or CLT required, in line with Florida rules.
University of Georgia	"There is no test optional pathway to UGA."
Ohio State (Columbus)	ACT or SAT required again from the 2026 cycle, international students included.
University of Tennessee, Knoxville	ACT or SAT required. For Fall 2027, self-report scores by Jan. 20, 2027.
Auburn	ACT or SAT required for a complete Fall 2027 application.
University of Miami	SAT or ACT required, but optional for applicants graduating from a high school outside the US, and for some arts and architecture programs.
US Naval Academy, West Point, Air Force Academy	SAT, ACT or CLT required. These academies have separate rules for international candidates.

Test-optional for Fall 2027, but required again for Fall 2028

If you are in grade 10 or 11 now, this matters most. Several universities have announced that Fall 2027 is the last test-optional entry:

University	Fall 2027	Next
Columbia (College and Engineering)	Test-optional	Required from the 2027-28 cycle (Fall 2028 entry). Waivers can be requested.
Princeton	Test-optional	Required for Fall 2028 entry.
Notre Dame	Test-optional	Required from the 2027-28 cycle (Fall 2028 entry).
Claremont McKenna	Test-optional	Required for the Fall 2028 admission cycle.
Vanderbilt	Test-optional (also for Fall 2028)	Required for Fall 2029 entry and later.
University of Alabama	Score required only below a 3.0 GPA	Required for all applicants for 2028 entry.

Conditional policies

• UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State: test-optional with a weighted GPA of 2.8 or above. Below that, a score is required. UNC's policy names ACT 17+ or SAT 930+.
• LSU: a score is required below a 3.5 weighted GPA.
• Baylor: SAT/ACT required "unless applying Test Optional".

Test-optional at many other top universities

On their official pages, these were test-optional for Fall 2027 entry. If you send scores, they are considered.

• Universities: University of Chicago, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Northeastern, Emory, USC, Tufts, WashU, Boston University (through fall 2028), University of Michigan, Wisconsin-Madison, University of Maryland, Virginia Tech, Pitt (through fall 2028), Syracuse.
• Liberal arts colleges: Pomona, Bowdoin, Swarthmore, Barnard, Middlebury, Wellesley.

Rice says it "recommends, but does not require" scores.

Test-blind: scores are not used

• University of California (Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Irvine, Santa Barbara, Davis, Santa Cruz, Riverside): SAT/ACT are not considered for admission or scholarships. Scores may be used after enrollment for placement.
• California State University (for example Cal Poly SLO, San Diego State, Long Beach, Fullerton, Cal Poly Pomona): the CSU system no longer uses SAT/ACT in admission.
• Reed College: asks you to self-report scores if you have them, but says it will not use them in the evaluation.

What this means for international students

1. The most selective universities increasingly require the SAT. If MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn or Georgetown is on your list, plan to take the SAT.
2. "Optional" does not mean "ignored." Some optional schools explicitly encourage international applicants to send scores. Whitman strongly encourages international applicants to submit a score when one is available. William & Mary strongly encourages it when you have no IB, AP or A-level results. Gettysburg's international page calls the SAT/ACT "very strongly recommended".
3. A score can stand in for a school system admissions officers don't know. If your national grading scale is unfamiliar to US admissions offices, a strong SAT gives them a common reference point. That reasoning is ours, not any university's.
4. An English test is a separate requirement. Many universities require TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo from non-native speakers whatever their SAT policy is. A few, such as Vanderbilt, accept a high SAT Reading and Writing score as one way to show English proficiency.

How we checked, and the limits

• Our method: we read each university's own admissions pages on November 6, 2026.
• Schools we could not check: for a few schools we could not open the official site that day, including Williams, Amherst, NYU, UVA, Purdue, Texas A&M and Fordham. We do not state their policy here.
• University profiles on this site: for unchecked schools, the profiles show the policy the school reported to the US Department of Education (IPEDS, Fall 2024), and say so.

Whatever your list looks like, the UCSAT app helps you prepare for the digital SAT section by section.