Research · Test scores · October 2026

Which colleges ignore an SAT or ACT score even when a student sends it

As of October 2026: For fall 2027 applicants, 10 rows in our table are test blind, which means a score is not read even if a student sends it: every University of California campus, all 23 California State University campuses, Pitzer, Reed, Hampshire, Lewis & Clark, Augsburg, Cal Poly Maritime, Washington State and Northern Illinois. Twelve more in the table are only test optional, so they do read a score when one arrives.

The table holds all 24 colleges and systems we checked, each one's policy for fall 2027 and the page it was read from. It is not a list of every test-blind college.

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 at the colleges we checked

Test-blind colleges first, then the ones that are only test optional.

First-year applicant policy as each college's or system's own page stated it in October 2026, for the application cycle now open, which is fall 2027 entry. Test blind means a score is not considered even when it is sent; test optional means the college reads a score when a student sends one. These are the colleges and systems we checked, not every test-blind college in the country, so absence from the table is not a policy. Policies are set one cycle at a time, which makes a college's own page newer than this table.

The colleges that will not look at a score

Two public systems carry this list. Every UC campus is test blind. The UC guarantee for students near the top of their class is made with no test score at all. All 23 CSU campuses are test blind too, and that rule is systemwide, not campus by campus.

The single colleges are Pitzer, Reed, Lewis & Clark, Hampshire, Augsburg, Cal Poly Maritime, Washington State and Northern Illinois. Hampshire has not taken scores since 2014. Reed asks for a self-reported score if a student has one, then does not use it.

Cal Maritime is the row to read twice. It is now Cal Poly Maritime Academy, part of Cal Poly, and still a CSU campus. The page here is the archived Cal Maritime page, because the current Cal Poly page would not load for us.

The colleges families mix up with these

Twelve colleges in the table are test optional, not test blind. Dickinson, Catholic University, Loyola New Orleans, Whitman, Sarah Lawrence, Antioch and Southern Oregon are on that list. So are five public colleges in Washington state, the University of Washington among them. Several were test blind in the pandemic years, which is where the mix-up starts.

Two more rows are neither. The University of Idaho is conditional. A score is optional at a 3.00 grade point average or higher. From 2.60 to 2.99 a student must send a score or join the Vandal Gateway Program. Cornell now asks for a score at all eight of its undergraduate colleges, so no part of Cornell is score free.

College of the Atlantic is not in the table. Its admissions pages would not load for us. We do not print a policy we could not read on the college's own site.

What a family should do with this

Check each college on your student's list, on that college's own page, in the fall of senior year. The table says which cycle each policy covers. A policy can change between a sophomore year and an application.

If every college on the list is test blind, the testing question is settled. The time goes to grades and course rigor instead. If one college reads scores, the student is taking the test. One college sets the plan for the whole list.

Watch the end dates. Pitzer returns to test optional for students entering in fall 2028. A current sophomore is looking at a different Pitzer than a current senior.

Related: Test policy at California's public universities · Test policy at public universities, state by state · Do test scores still matter? · Plain-English explainers from Test Prep Gurus