Research · Test scores · October 2026

Which colleges brought back the SAT requirement, and the first class it hit

As of October 2026: 20 of the 35 colleges in our table require an SAT or ACT score from fall 2027 applicants, and 15 of them name the first class that had to send one. Those first classes run from fall 2022 at the University of Georgia to fall 2029 at Vanderbilt, which is still test optional today.

The table holds all 35 colleges we checked, each one's policy for fall 2027, the first class required to send a score and the page it was read from. Fourteen are still optional.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

Test policy and the first class required, at the colleges we checked

Sorted by the first class that had to send a score; colleges whose pages name no such class come last.

First-year applicant policy as each college's own admissions page or news release stated it in October 2026, for the application cycle now open, which is fall 2027 entry. The first class required is the first entering class that had to send a score, in the college's own words; a blank means the page did not state one, and for five of these colleges that may mean the requirement never lapsed. Carnegie Mellon sets the rule school by school, so its row carries a sentence instead of one label. These are the colleges we checked, not every college in the country, and a policy covers one cycle at a time.

The colleges that are still test optional

Fourteen colleges in the table leave the score to the student for fall 2027. Princeton, Columbia and Notre Dame are on that list, with fall 2028 already announced, and so is Vanderbilt with fall 2029. The ten with no return date are Michigan, UNC Chapel Hill, Wisconsin, Illinois, Washington University in St. Louis, Duke, Northwestern, Rice, Emory and Chicago.

Four of those ten come with a condition to read closely. UNC Chapel Hill is optional only above a weighted grade point average of 2.8; below that a student must send a score. Illinois is optional because state law says so for every public university in Illinois. Wisconsin's waiver is authorized through the spring 2028 term. Rice says a score is recommended, not required.

Yale is the college that changed shape rather than direction. It used to take an AP or IB score in place of an SAT or ACT. From the cycle now open it takes the SAT or ACT only.

One college sets the rule school by school

Carnegie Mellon has no single policy. Its School of Computer Science requires an SAT or ACT. Most of its other colleges require a score from some accepted exam. Its College of Fine Arts is optional. At Carnegie Mellon, the school a student applies to decides the answer.

What a family should do with this

Sort the student's list by what it asks for. If one college on it requires a score, the student is taking the test, and the plan is the same as if every college did.

Read the first-class column by the student's graduation year, not by today. A sophomore applying for fall 2028 entry faces Princeton, Columbia and Notre Dame as required colleges. A senior applying now does not.

Then check each college's own page in the fall of senior year. These policies have moved every year since 2020, in both directions, and the college's page is always newer than a table.

Related: Test policy at public universities, state by state · Test policy at the 50 most-applied-to private colleges · Colleges that will not look at a score at all · SAT or ACT, which one to take