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Test-Optional Colleges 2026/27: A Complete List and Tips for Your SAT/ACT Strategy
Which top schools don't require the SAT or ACT, and when to submit
Arkesh P.
Chief Operating Officer
Summary
Test-optional colleges let you decide whether your SAT or ACT scores are considered in admissions. For 2026/27 that includes Princeton, Columbia, Duke, Northwestern, UChicago, Michigan, Notre Dame, USC, Vanderbilt, WashU, most top liberal arts colleges, and a large group of public flagships. This is the last cycle an Ivy League application can go score-free, since Princeton and Columbia require scores from 2027-28. A test-optional school still reads the scores you send, and most applicants now send them, so plan to test and decide school by school.
What is a test-optional school?
A test-optional school doesn't require SAT or ACT scores for admission. You decide whether your scores become part of your file. Submit them and admissions officers read them alongside your grades, essays, and activities. Withhold them and your application gets full consideration without them, at least officially. More than 1,900 US institutions run some version of this policy, according to FairTest, and most set and renew it one cycle at a time. Check the label every year, even at schools you researched last cycle.
Test optional vs test required, test flexible, and test free
The four policies read similarly on admissions pages and work very differently in practice:
| What it means | Examples 2026/27 |
Test optional | You choose whether scores are considered | Princeton, Duke, UChicago, Michigan |
Test required | Scores are mandatory for review | Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Cornell |
Test flexible | A score is required, but alternatives to the SAT/ACT can count | Most Carnegie Mellon colleges (SAT, ACT, AP, IB, A-Levels) |
Test free/blind | Scores are not considered even if you send them | All UC campuses, Cal State system |
A strong score can help you at a test-optional school and does nothing for you at a test-free one.
And at test flexible schools you can submit AP or IB results in place of SAT/ACT scores.
When a school is test-optional, we were maybe even a little bit harsher on the review of SAT or ACT scores, because you don't have to give it in. It has to be a score you're quite proud of.
Jermaine D.
Former Columbia Admissions Officer
Which top universities are test optional for 2026/27?
These are the most selective national universities where testing remains your choice this cycle. Policies change frequently, so confirm on each school's admissions page before you apply.
University | Policy notes for 2026/27 |
Princeton University | Final test-optional cycle; requires SAT/ACT from 2027-28 |
Columbia University | Final test-optional cycle; requires SAT/ACT from 2027-28 |
University of Chicago | Permanent, with a No Harm review of submitted scores |
Northwestern University | Test optional, reviewed annually |
Duke University | Test optional |
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor | Test optional, confirmed for the 2027 cycle and reviewed on an ongoing basis |
University of Notre Dame | Confirmed through at least 2026/27; submission encouraged |
University of Southern California | Test optional for fall 2027 entrants |
Vanderbilt University | Optional for fall 2027 and fall 2028 applicants; required from fall 2029 |
Rice University | Test optional, but scores are formally recommended |
University of Virginia | Fall 2027 applicants choose |
Washington University in St. Louis | Test optional; superscores the SAT and ACT |
Emory University | Test optional; superscores both tests |
New York University | Test optional through 2026/27 |
Tufts University | Test optional |
Tulane University | Optional for fall 2027; encourages submission at 1300+ SAT or 28+ ACT |
Boston College | Test optional; 75% of admitted students submitted in 2024-25 |
Boston University | Test optional through fall 2028 and spring 2029, scholarships included; superscores both; your choice locks once you apply |
University of Wisconsin-Madison | Extended in April 2026 for fall 2027 entrants |
University of Washington | Requirement permanently removed; scores used only as a plus |
Wake Forest University | Test optional since 2008 |
Case Western Reserve University | Test optional across all programs; you can switch your decision up to two weeks before results |
fairtest.org
Princeton and Columbia: the last test-optional Ivy cycle
Princeton and Columbia require the SAT or ACT starting with the 2027-28 cycle. If you apply this year, it’s still your choice whether to submit. If you finish high school in 2028 or later, every Ivy League application will need a score, so you're testing either way and the earlier you settle it the better.
More test-optional public universities and public Ivies
These flagships leave the choice to you as well, on top of Michigan, UVA, Wisconsin and UW Seattle above. Public policies expire far more often than private ones, so check the year on each. UNC Chapel Hill also belongs here, but its policy depends on your GPA, so it sits in the conditional table below.
University | Policy notes for 2026/27 |
William & Mary | Test optional indefinitely since March 2023; superscores |
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign | Optional for all first-year applicants, including international, homeschooled, and recruited athletes |
University of Maryland, College Park | Extended through the spring and fall 2027 cycles; under review beyond that |
Rutgers University | Test optional through 2027 |
University of Pittsburgh | Test optional through fall 2028 entry, including international and homeschooled applicants |
University of Minnesota, Twin Cities | Optional through fall 2027; the university calls this a temporary policy |
Indiana University Bloomington | Test optional, though IU says it prefers to see scores |
Virginia Tech | Test optional through fall 2028 entry, all major |
fairtest.org
Read the timing as carefully as the policy
University of Illinois won't let you add scores later for scholarship, honors, or course placement, and Pitt locks your test-optional status the moment review begins. At a public flagship you're usually committing to the choice when you apply, months before any decision arrives.
Test-optional liberal arts colleges
Liberal arts colleges are the stable core of test-optional admissions. The reversal to required testing has concentrated almost entirely at research universities, while most top liberal arts colleges have made their policies permanent, several of them decades before the pandemic.
College | Policy notes for 2026/27 |
Williams College | Test optional |
Amherst College | Permanent; official scores required after enrollment if submitted |
Swarthmore College | Test optional |
Bowdoin College | Permanent; test optional since 1969, the first US college to drop the requirement; superscores |
Pomona College | Permanent; submitted ACTs must include the Science section |
Wellesley College | Test optional |
Carleton College | Permanent |
Claremont McKenna College | Test optional |
Harvey Mudd College | Test optional |
Vassar College | Permanent |
Middlebury College | Permanent |
Barnard College | Extended through fall 2027 entry |
Bates College | Permanent; optional since 1984, one of the longest-standing policies in the country |
Davidson College | Test optional since 2020; superscores both tests; about half of admits submit |
Grinnell College | Test optional |
Colby College | Test optional; superscores across sittings and accepts single-section retests |
Hamilton College | Test optional; encourages submission at 1400+ SAT or 32+ ACT |
Wesleyan University | Test optional since 2014 |
fairtest.org
Important note
The ACT made its Science section optional in the 2025 redesign, and schools disagree about whether they still want it. Pomona won't accept an ACT unless it includes Science, while Hamilton and Emory accept an ACT with or without it. Check before you book a test date.
28 of the top 50 US liberal arts colleges hold permanent test-optional policies, compared with 13 of the top 50 national universities. If your list leans liberal arts, testing is likely to stay your choice.
Conditional policies and the exceptions
Some schools are test optional for certain applicants and test required for others. The label won't tell you whether you personally need a score, and this is where applicants most often get caught out.
University | Policy for 2026/27 | What it means for you |
UNC Chapel Hill | GPA-conditional | Optional above the UNC system GPA threshold; CLT accepted from fall 2027 |
University of Alabama | GPA-conditional | Scores required below a 3.0 GPA from the 2027 entering class |
Villanova University | Optional with exception | Homeschooled applicants must submit scores |
Eligibility varies more than the lists suggest, and homeschooled applicants see the widest spread: Villanova requires scores after two years of homeschooling, Davidson strongly recommends them, and Illinois, Pitt and Boston College cover homeschooled, international and recruited-athlete applicants under the standard policy. Read your own category, then check three overrides:
Direct-entry programs
Tulane's Pathways to Medicine requires scores where Tulane doesn't, like most accelerated tracks.
Honors and merit gates
Honors colleges and merit awards at flagships are often score-gated where admission isn't.
Test-flexible schools
At Carnegie Mellon a score is mandatory at six of seven colleges; you only choose which exam.
Colleges that recently ended test-optional admissions
Five more schools have brought the requirement back. The University of Miami and Penn State require scores from fall 2026 entry, Ohio State requires them at its Columbus campus, and Auburn and LSU follow from fall 2027. If any are on your list, your testing timeline is set for you.
"Test optional" doesn't always mean neutral
Optional means different things at different schools, and it pays to know which kind you're looking at. UChicago sits at the neutral end with its No Harm review: send a score and it counts only if it helps you. The University of Washington dropped its requirement for good and treats a score as a plus for borderline cases, nothing more.
Most schools are warmer on testing than that. Rice recommends scores without requiring them, Tulane encourages you to submit at 1300, and three quarters of the students Boston College admitted last cycle had sent one anyway. Princeton goes furthest: its most recent Common Data Set rates testing "very important," level with GPA and essays, on a policy that remains technically optional.
Call that test-preferred. The admissions page calls it optional, while the applicant pool and the weight a reader gives a score lean closer to expected.
The chances are much slimmer to be admitted without testing, because the admissions office is thinking your testing wasn't that strong, and that's why you didn't submit it.
Dana C.
Former Princeton Admissions Officer
Students are submitting scores again
Students have moved faster than the schools. Across the 2025-26 season, 1.53 million people applied through the Common App, and the number sending scores rose 11% while the number holding them back fell 5%. More applicants submitted than didn't, for the first time since 2019-20.
Policy is shifting too, though slowly. About 55% of Common App member colleges required a score in 2019-20. That hit a low of 4% in 2023-24 and has crept back to 5%. Those 1,146 members run from open-access to highly selective, so 5% describes the whole country. The schools on this page are bringing testing back much faster.
At a selective test-optional school it's highly likely that the file next to yours has a score reported in it.
Should you submit your SAT or ACT scores?
Submit when your score backs up what the rest of your file says about you, withhold when it undercuts that, and make the call school by school. The question is whether it helps at this school, against its range.
Read the published ranges before you use them
Every threshold below rests on published mid-50% ranges, and those ranges are inflated at exactly the schools this page covers. A published range describes only the enrolled students who submitted, so during the optional years it lost its bottom half. Vanderbilt makes the point: 24% of its class submitted an SAT, and its range still reads 1510 to 1560. Treat the numbers below as directional, because they'll fall as required testing rebuilds representative pools.
The submit percentile thresholds
75th: the target
The score stops being a question in your file. Testing is settled; close the workstream.
50th: the minimum
Competitive and strengthens your case, but the rest of your file still does the real work.
25th: the floor
Below this, the score reads as a ceiling lower than the pool's, even where submitting is optional.
Between the floor and the 50th, the call turns on context. Hamilton's submitters' middle 50% runs 1440 to 1510, and it still tells applicants to submit at 1400. Davidson tells you to submit if your scores beat your own high school's average. Submit in that band when your score is strong for your circumstances, or when it answers a question your file leaves open.
SAT calibration by tier, from verified 2026/27 ranges. The 25th percentile figures are published; the 50th percentile figures are midpoints of the published range rather than reported medians:
| Withhold floor (25th) | Strong submission (~50th) |
Most selective test-optional (Duke, Northwestern, Vanderbilt, Rice, UChicago, WashU) | 1500-1510 | ~1540 |
Selective test-optional (NYU, Emory, USC, Notre Dame) | 1460-1480 | ~1505 |
Broader test-optional (roughly top 30-50) | 1370-1410 | ~1450 |
Institutional CDS
A 1440 sits below the withhold floor at Duke and comfortably above it at Tulane, so it belongs in one of those applications but not the other. Check our guides below for complete benchmark tiers:
When to submit
Your GPA is weaker than your score.
A strong SAT next to mediocre grades shows you can do more than your transcript suggests. Leave it blank and the reader has nothing to weigh against the grades.
You're an international applicant with a strong score.
A 95 out of 100 from a national curriculum in Vietnam means something different to a Duke reader than a 95 from a school they recognize, and the SAT means the same thing wherever you take it. An optional SAT doesn't waive TOEFL or IELTS.
You also hold AP 5s or IB 7s.
A strong SAT alongside those tells a reader the same thing twice, from two different exams. Two sources are harder to discount than one.
You want honors or merit money at a public flagship.
These run score-gated processes even where admission is optional, and several schools won't let you add a score later.
Your transcript needs context,
Whether from disruption, an unfamiliar grading system, limited course availability, or a homeschool record.
You tested with accommodations.
College Board and ACT score reports don't flag accommodated testing, so your score is indistinguishable from any other.
When to withhold
Your score sits below the withhold floor
At that school and nothing else compels submission. Even at a no-harm school like UChicago, a score below the range is set aside rather than counted against you, so there's nothing to gain by sending it.
Your sections are severely lopsided against your intended major.
An 800 math with a 620 verbal draws a humanities reader's eye straight to the weaker number. If the weaker section falls below the school's section-level 25th percentile, withhold. That same split matters far less for a quantitative major, where math is the section a reader weighs.
A cold, unprepared sitting produced a weak score
And no retest fits before the deadline. You know it understates you, and a reader has no way to tell.
Case Studies: What this looks like in practice
Two Crimson admits from recent cycles show the decision from both sides.
The submit case: a score that answered an open question
Profile: Glaucoma research at a university hospital with a paper under review, a NASA student research program, published creative writing, and a nationally ranked varsity sport.
Problem: A reader couldn't tell whether this was a scientist or a writer. The file indicated both.
Score: 1560, with an 800 in math, well above Stanford's median.
What it did: Confirmed the quantitative ceiling, so the research read as substantive.
Result: Admitted to Stanford REA. The score didn't carry the application, it cleared the way for the research to.
The withhold case: nothing left for a score to prove
Profile: A 4.96 weighted GPA, a medal from an international piano competition, a national arts award, three consecutive national music scholarships, and neuroscience research.
Problem: None that a test could solve. Her transcript covered the academics, and the awards and research covered ground no score reaches.
Score: Withheld.
Result: Admitted to Harvard REA, Stanford, and Yale without one.
Caveat: She applied in an earlier cycle, while all three were still test optional. The same student today would have to submit at all three.
Both profiles were strong. What differed was whether more was needed to complete the picture.
Decision matrix at a glance
Scenario | Default call | Caveat |
At or above the 50th percentile | Submit | Check major- and scholarship-specific rules |
Between the withhold floor and the 50th | Depends on context | Submit if it's strong for your school setting or answers an open question |
Below the withhold floor | Withhold | Exception: a score-gated scholarship or honors program. At a no-harm school the score is disregarded rather than damaging |
Test-required school | Submit | The optional calculus doesn't apply |
Test-free school | Nothing to decide | Scores can't help admission; some placement uses after enrollment |
Honors, merit, or direct-entry pathway | Check the pathway's own rule | Often score-gated even where admission is optional |
Check each school's Common Data Set before deciding. It reports the mid-50% ranges by section and the share of enrolled students who submitted, which tells you how optional the policy really is.
The withholding mistake
Those inflated ranges have a cost. Dartmouth's research found qualified applicants from under-resourced schools withholding scores around 1400 that sat just below a school's median but would have helped them. Check your score against your own school context before you decide to withhold.
Take the test early enough to keep the option open, then decide school by school.
Frequently asked questions about test optional admissions
What is the difference between test optional and test free?
Test optional means you choose whether your scores are considered, and submitted scores get read. Test free, also called test blind, means scores play no role even if you submit them. A great score can help you at a test-optional school and can't help you at a test-free one.
Will I be at a disadvantage if I don't submit scores to a test-optional school?
Officially, no. In practice it depends on the school and the rest of your application. At truly neutral schools, withholding costs you nothing. At test-preferred schools, most successful applicants submit, and a missing score leaves a gap where corroborating evidence would sit.
Can I submit scores to some schools and withhold at others?
Yes, and you should. You answer the testing question separately for each school on the Common App, and you control which schools receive an official report. What you can't do is take it back: once a school has your score most will read it, and several lock your status the moment review begins.
Do international students need scores at test-optional schools?
The policies apply to international applicants too, but the practical bar is higher. Without a score, your file rests on a transcript an admissions officer may have no easy way to compare against others. Most competitive international applicants to top test-optional schools submit for that reason.
Can a school's policy change after I start preparing?
Yes. Columbia reversed a policy it had called permanent, and Yale ended its substitution option after two cycles. Changes announced mid-year usually take effect the following cycle, so seniors are rarely caught out, but younger students should plan around the strictest school on their list.
Plan your testing strategy with Crimson
Testing policy is one of the fastest-moving parts of elite admissions, and the schools rewriting their rules are the same ones where guesswork costs the most. Crimson's strategists track every policy change and build testing plans around each student's actual list, which is one reason Crimson students are 7.4x more likely to be admitted to the Ivy League and Stanford than the general applicant pool. If you want help deciding where testing fits in your application, book a free consultation with our Ivy League admissions consultants.