Is Test-Optional Ending? Colleges That Require the SAT or ACT Again (2026–27 Tracker)

Test-optional admissions are ending at the most selective US colleges, but not at most colleges. For the 2026–27 admission cycle, FairTest counts 84.7% of 2,199 tracked colleges as test-optional and 3.5% as test-free, while 151 (6.9%) require the SAT or ACT. The change is concentrated at the top: every Ivy League school now requires scores or will for students entering in fall 2028, along with MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame and a growing list of public flagships. Below is a dated, sourced table of every reinstatement we could confirm, the counts behind the headlines, and how to decide whether to send your score.

How many colleges are test-optional in 2026–27?

About 85% of the colleges FairTest tracks are test-optional, and another 3.5% ignore scores entirely. FairTest, an advocacy group that supports test-optional policies, maintains the most widely cited list of college testing policies↗. For the 2026–27 cycle, which is generally for fall 2027 entry, it reports:

Source: FairTest test-optional list (2026–27 cycle). The categories add up to 2,199; FairTest also cites a database of 2,247 and 2,182 verified policies, so treat the totals as approximate.

A year earlier, FairTest’s September 2025 press release↗ said 2,088 of 2,248 ranked four-year colleges (more than 90%) would be test-optional or test-free for fall 2026, and 160 would require scores, up from 154 for fall 2025. The newer list’s 151 is not directly comparable, because 108 colleges had not yet confirmed a policy.

Is test-optional ending? What the Common App data show

Requirements collapsed in 2020 and have barely recovered among Common App members, but student behavior has shifted back toward testing. Common App’s 2025–26 end-of-season report↗ says about 55% of its members required a test score in 2019–20. That fell to an all-time low of 4% in 2023–24 and stood at 5% in 2025–26.

Applicants moved faster than policies. In 2025–26 the number of applicants reporting a score grew 11% while non-reporters fell 5%, and reporters outnumbered non-reporters for the first time since 2019–20. Common App notes that first-generation students, fee-waiver-eligible students and students from lower-income areas were still more likely to apply without a score, though reporting grew faster than non-reporting in every group.

The takeaway: a small number of colleges require scores, but those colleges receive a large share of applications, and many students now submit scores even where they are optional.

Colleges that reinstated SAT/ACT requirements

We confirmed 19 colleges or systems from their own announcements or news coverage, plus 6 from a test-prep tracker (flagged). Dates are announcement dates; “first class affected” is the first entering class that must submit scores. Sort by any column.

Download the table as CSV (UTF-8; columns: school, state, control, announced, first_entering_class_affected, source, source_url, source_type).

Two rows need a note. Yale appears twice: in February 2024 it adopted a “test-flexible” requirement that accepted AP or IB scores in place of the SAT or ACT, and on May 27, 2026 it announced↗ a return to requiring the SAT or ACT, as before 2020. Sources disagree on which cycle that change starts, so check Yale admissions directly. Alabama and LSU are phasing requirements in: LSU, for example, requires scores from applicants with a weighted GPA under 3.5 for summer 2027 and from everyone starting summer 2028, according to the Louisiana Illuminator↗.

Where does the Ivy League stand?

All eight Ivies now require the SAT or ACT, or have announced a date to do so.

Sources: college announcements and student newspapers linked in the table above.

For a high school junior in fall 2026, the practical meaning is simple: if any Ivy is on your list, plan to take the SAT or ACT. Princeton and Columbia stay test-optional for seniors applying this cycle, but a junior applying in 2027–28 will need scores at all eight.

Why colleges are bringing tests back

Most reinstating colleges point to their own outcome data. Dartmouth’s February 2024 announcement said a faculty analysis found that grades plus test results best predicted success at Dartmouth, and that scores help identify capable students from less-resourced families who might not submit them under a test-optional policy (Dartmouth↗). Princeton said five years of test-optional data showed stronger academic performance among students who submitted scores. Notre Dame, announcing in September 2026, cited a strong correlation between scores and classroom performance.

The most cited outside evidence is a study by John Friedman, Bruce Sacerdote, Douglas Staiger and Michele Tine, published in AEA Papers and Proceedings in May 2025 (Opportunity Insights↗):

Source: Friedman, Sacerdote, Staiger and Tine (2025), “Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy-Plus Colleges.”

Part of the reason high school GPA predicts so little at these schools is grade inflation: when most applicants have near-perfect grades, GPA stops separating them. Our grade inflation study shows average GPAs rising while test scores stayed flat. The study covers a dozen highly selective colleges; its results may not hold at less selective or public universities.

The case for staying test-optional

FairTest argues the reversals are the exception. In its September 2025 release, FairTest’s executive director Harry Feder said test-optional and test-free policies “remain the normal baseline in undergraduate admissions,” and that a digital SAT and ACT will not change that. FairTest lists Emory, the University of Chicago, USC, Vanderbilt, Amherst, Bowdoin, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Wesleyan and Williams among well-known colleges test-optional at least through fall 2026, along with most state systems, including Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Oregon and Washington. The University of California and California State University systems are permanently test-blind.

Supporters of test-optional policies point to access: Common App’s own data show that first-generation, fee-waiver-eligible and lower-income applicants remain more likely to apply without scores. That is why several reinstating colleges added hardship waivers (Penn, Columbia, Notre Dame) or exemptions (Princeton for active military).

Should you submit your score? A decision table

At a test-optional college, a score helps when it sits at or above the middle of that college’s range. Colleges publish the middle 50% of submitted scores in their Common Data Set or class profile. Use the 25th and 75th percentile numbers:

Rule of thumb used by many counselors; it is not a published college rule.

Worked example. A student scores 1250 (Reading and Writing 630, Math 620). Nationally, College Board’s 2025 annual report↗ puts 1200 at the 75th percentile of the class of 2025, so 1250 is above three-quarters of test takers. Now take a hypothetical test-optional college whose submitted scores run from 1180 (25th percentile) to 1340 (75th), with a median near 1260. The student sits just below the median: a judgment call. At a hypothetical college with a 1100 to 1250 range, the same score is at the 75th percentile and should be sent. At a test-required college, the student sends it regardless and may retake to raise a section. To see how your score compares nationally, read what counts as a good SAT score or what counts as a good ACT score.

What this means for the class of 2027 and 2028

• Plan to test. If your list includes any Ivy, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Notre Dame, Ohio State, UT Austin, Purdue, LSU or the University of Alabama, you need a score (or will soon). Estimate where you are with the SAT score calculator or the ACT score calculator.
• Use the PSAT. The October PSAT/NMSQT is free practice and the entry point for National Merit; check your index with the PSAT score calculator and see the National Merit cutoffs by state.
• Grades still come first. Even test-required colleges read scores alongside your transcript. Track your high school GPA every semester.
• Watch the calendar. Several policies change for fall 2028 entry, the current juniors’ cycle. Check each college’s admissions page in the spring of junior year.
• Context: fewer high school graduates are coming (see our enrollment cliff data), but selective colleges are tightening testing, not loosening it.

Methodology and limitations

• What counts as a reinstatement: a college that had a test-optional policy after 2020 and announced a return to requiring SAT or ACT scores for first-year applicants. Purdue and MIT announced before 2024; UT Austin requires scores even from automatically admitted top-10% students.
• Sources: each row links to the source we used. We prefer the college’s own announcement; where we could not open it, we used a student newspaper or local news report. Six rows (Auburn, Carnegie Mellon computer science, the University of Miami, Georgia State, Georgia Southern and Kennesaw State) come only from College Kickstart’s tracker and are flagged as vendor list.
• Dates can differ by source. “Class of 2029” means students entering fall 2025; we convert classes to entering terms.
• FairTest is an advocate. It supports test-optional admissions; its counts are the most complete available but not neutral, and its totals do not perfectly add up.
• Not covered: admit-rate differences between submitters and non-submitters at individual colleges, and the federal data-reporting request FairTest mentions.
• Dropped as unverifiable: a vendor summary of “86% / 4% / 7% (161 colleges)” and specific figures from a critique of the Ivy-Plus study that we could not open.

Cite this page

The reinstatement table and CSV are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 with credit and a link to this page.

Sources

• FairTest, test-optional list, 2026–27 cycle. fairtest.org↗
• FairTest, press release on fall 2026 policies (September 4, 2025). fairtest.org↗
• Common App, End-of-Season Report 2025–26 (August 20, 2026). commonapp.org↗
• Friedman, J., Sacerdote, B., Staiger, D. O., & Tine, M. (2025). “Standardized Test Scores and Academic Performance at Ivy-Plus Colleges.” AEA Papers and Proceedings, 115, 676–681. opportunityinsights.org↗
• College announcements and news reports for each college, linked in the reinstatement table (MIT News, Dartmouth, Brown, Harvard Gazette, Caltech, Cornell Chronicle, Stanford News, Johns Hopkins, Penn Today, Princeton, Columbia, Notre Dame, Yale News, Yale Daily News, KUT, Higher Ed Dive, WBRC, Louisiana Illuminator, Compass Education Group, College Kickstart).
• College Board, 2025 SAT Suite of Assessments Annual Report, Total Group. reports.collegeboard.org↗

Checked October 15, 2026. Testing policies change every year; confirm on each college’s admissions website before you apply. Spot an error? Tell us.