Research · Test scores · October 2026

Which private colleges require the SAT or ACT for fall 2027 applicants

Name: Which private colleges require the SAT or ACT for fall 2027 applicants
Creator: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As of October 2026: Of the 50 most-applied-to private nonprofit colleges, 12 require an SAT or ACT score from students applying now for fall 2027, 37 leave the score optional, and 1 could not be confirmed from the college's own pages. Columbia stays optional for fall 2027 and returns to requiring scores for students enrolling in fall 2028.

The table holds all 50 colleges, each one's policy, the term that policy covers and a link to the page it was read from. Public universities are not in it.

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

The findings, in plain English

Twelve of the 50 require a score from this year's applicants. The required list is mostly the most selective names: Brown, Carnegie Mellon, Cornell, Dartmouth, Georgetown, Harvard, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Penn, Stanford, Yale and the University of Miami. Each one asks for an SAT or ACT score from first-year applicants for fall 2027. Georgetown is on the list because it never dropped the requirement.

Four optional colleges have already named the year the score comes back. 37 of the 50 leave the score to the applicant for fall 2027. Columbia, Princeton and Notre Dame have each announced that scores will be required from students enrolling in fall 2028, and Vanderbilt from fall 2029. Those four are optional today and will not be for a family with a younger student.

A policy is set one cycle at a time. The term column shows how narrow these promises are. New York University states its policy for the upcoming application term. Boston University has said it stays optional through fall 2028 and spring 2029. A policy that covers this year says nothing about the year after.

Test policy at the 50 most-applied-to private colleges

Required colleges first, then optional, then the one we could not confirm.

College	Policy	Term it covers	Change announced	College's page
Brown University	required	first-year applicants beginning with the 2024-25 admission cycle (covers fall 2027)	reinstated beginning with the 2024-25 admission cycle	Source
Carnegie Mellon University	required	fall 2026 applicants and beyond (covers fall 2027); College of Fine Arts remains test optional	most colleges moved from test optional to 'test flexible' (a score from some accepted exam is mandatory) starting fall 2026; School of Computer Science requires SAT or ACT specifically	Source
Cornell University	required	first-year applicants, fall 2026 and beyond (covers fall 2027)	reinstated beginning fall 2026 entry after a test-optional pandemic-era period	Source
Dartmouth College	required	Class of 2029 applicants (fall 2025 entry) and continuing	reactivated the testing requirement beginning with the Class of 2029 after a test-optional pandemic-era period	Source
Georgetown University	required	current application cycle (Georgetown never adopted test-optional admissions)	—	Source
Harvard University	required	Class of 2029 applicants (fall 2025 entry) and continuing	reinstated for the Class of 2029 after a test-optional pandemic-era period	Source
Johns Hopkins University	required	fall 2026 and beyond (covers fall 2027)	reinstated for fall 2026 after a test-optional period	Source
Massachusetts Institute of Technology	required	current and future admissions cycles (since fall 2022 entrants)	reinstated after a two-cycle pandemic-era suspension (fall 2021 and fall 2022 applications were test-optional)	Source
Stanford University	required	current first-year applicants (fall 2027 entry)	required again starting with Class of 2030 applicants (fall 2026 entry) after Class of 2029 was test-optional	Source
University of Miami	required	fall 2026 undergraduate admission and beyond (covers fall 2027)	reinstated starting fall 2026 entry	Source
University of Pennsylvania	required	2026-2027 admissions cycle (fall 2027 entry)	reinstated for the 2025-26 cycle after a test-optional period	Source
Yale University	required	current first-year and transfer applicants	narrowed from a test-flexible (SAT/ACT/AP/IB) policy to SAT-or-ACT-only starting the 2026-2027 cycle	Source
Baylor University	optional	2027-2028 application process	—	Source
Boston College	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Boston University	optional	fall 2028 and spring 2029 (covers fall 2027)	—	Source
Case Western Reserve University	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Clark Atlanta University	optional	Spring 2027 and Fall 2027 application cycle	—	Source
Columbia University in the City of New York	optional	fall 2027 applicants (2026-2027 cycle)	required from the 2027-2028 cycle (students enrolling fall 2028)	Source
DePaul University	optional	current application cycle (permanent policy since 2016)	—	Source
Drexel University	optional	fall entry (current)	—	Source
Duke University	optional	2026-2027 admissions cycle (fall 2027 entry)	—	Source
Emory University	optional	2026-2027 application cycle (fall 2027 entry)	—	Source
George Washington University	optional	current application cycle (policy in place since 2015)	—	Source
Hofstra University	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Howard University	optional	2026-27 admission cycle (fall 2027 entry)	—	Source
Liberty University	optional	general undergraduate resident program admission	—	Source
Loyola Marymount University	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Loyola University Chicago	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
New York University	optional	the upcoming application term (current cycle, fall 2027 entry)	—	Source
Northeastern University	optional	the foreseeable future (includes fall 2027)	—	Source
Northwestern University	optional	current application cycle (2026-27, fall 2027 entry)	—	Source
Pace University	optional	the foreseeable future (includes fall 2027)	—	Source
Princeton University	optional	fall 2027 entry (2026-27 admission cycle)	standardized testing will be required beginning with the 2027-28 admission cycle (fall 2028 entry)	Source
Rice University	optional	current application cycle (recommended, not required, since the 2024-25 cycle)	—	Source
Rochester Institute of Technology	optional	current application cycle (since fall 2021)	—	Source
Seton Hall University	optional	through the Fall 2029 admissions cycle (covers fall 2027)	—	Source
Southern New Hampshire University	optional	general undergraduate admission (ongoing)	—	Source
St. John's University-New York	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Syracuse University	optional	fall 2027 admission (named explicitly)	—	Source
The University of Tampa	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Tufts University	optional	all undergraduate applicants (current cycle, fall 2027)	—	Source
Tulane University of Louisiana	optional	Fall 2027 first-year and transfer admission (named explicitly)	—	Source
University of Chicago	optional	current application cycle (all applicants)	—	Source
University of Notre Dame	optional	fall 2027 applicants	Notre Dame will reinstate a standardized testing requirement beginning with the 2027-2028 admissions cycle (fall 2028 entry)	Source
University of San Francisco	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
University of Southern California	optional	first-year applicants to the 2027-28 academic year	—	Source
Vanderbilt University	optional	fall 2027 and fall 2028 applicants	testing will be required starting with applicants for fall 2029 entry	Source
Villanova University	optional	2026-27 admission cycle, Class of 2031 (fall 2027 entrants)	—	Source
Washington University in St Louis	optional	current application cycle	—	Source
Fordham University	unknown	—	secondary sources describe Fordham as test-optional for the foreseeable future, but Fordham's own admissions pages are gated behind a CAS login wall and could not be read directly	Source

First-year applicant policy as each college's own admissions page stated it in October 2026, for the cycle now open (fall 2027 entry). The 50 colleges are the private nonprofit colleges with the most applicants in the federal IPEDS file for the fall 2023 entering class, the latest federal file; for-profit colleges are left out. A blank in the last two columns means the college's page did not state a term or an upcoming change. Policies are set cycle by cycle, so a college's own page is newer than this table.

What a required policy actually requires

At the 12 colleges that require a score, an application without an SAT or ACT is incomplete. There is no waiver to apply for and nothing else that stands in for the number. A student with one of these colleges on the list is taking the test.

They came back on different timelines. MIT was first, for fall 2022 applicants. Brown returned for the 2024-25 cycle and Penn for the 2025-26 cycle. Harvard and Dartmouth returned with the Class of 2029. Cornell, Johns Hopkins, Stanford and the University of Miami returned for fall 2026 entry.

Yale changed shape rather than direction. It used to accept an AP or IB score in place of an SAT or ACT, and from the 2026-2027 cycle it takes the SAT or ACT only.

Two rows that carry a caveat

Fordham is listed as unknown. Every Fordham admissions page we tried redirects to a login screen, so the policy could not be read from the college's own site, and we do not print what other sites say it is.

Carnegie Mellon sets policy college by college. Its School of Computer Science requires an SAT or ACT, most of its other colleges require a score from some accepted exam, and its College of Fine Arts stays optional. Its row reports the majority position, so it cannot be read as one policy for the whole university.

Public universities are a separate list

This table is private colleges only. Public universities set test policy by system and by state, so a single state can hold a required campus and an optional one.

Our test policy report covers the public side, state by state. A family with a mixed list needs both pages, because the strictest college on the list decides whether the test happens.

What a family should do with this

Build the college list first, then read the policy for each college on it. If one college requires a score, the test is part of the plan, because that application cannot be sent without it.

Read the policy for the term your child will enter, not the one in the news. Columbia is optional for fall 2027 and required for fall 2028, so this year's senior and this year's junior face different rules at the same college.

Then check the college's own page again before each application season. Every row above links to the page it was read from, and those pages change.

Questions parents ask

How many private colleges require the SAT or ACT?

Of the 50 most-applied-to private nonprofit colleges, 12 require an SAT or ACT score from students applying now for fall 2027, 37 leave the score optional, and 1 could not be confirmed from the college's own pages.

Is Columbia test optional?

Columbia stays optional for fall 2027 and returns to requiring scores for students enrolling in fall 2028.

Does test optional mean a college will never require a score?

A policy that covers this year says nothing about the year after.

Method & sources: Each row is the first-year testing policy stated on that college's own admissions page in October 2026, for the application cycle now open (fall 2027 entry), with the college's wording for the term it covers and for any change it has already announced. The 50 colleges are the private nonprofit colleges with the most applicants in the federal IPEDS file for the fall 2023 entering class, the latest federal file; for-profit colleges and public universities are excluded. Two limits ride with the table: Fordham's admissions pages require a login, so its policy is recorded as unknown rather than guessed, and Carnegie Mellon sets policy college by college, so its row reports the majority position and not a single university rule. Rows are grouped by policy and then listed alphabetically.

This brief as data: /research/private-college-test-policy-2026.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).