Test policy · 50 states · Louisiana

Do Louisiana's public universities require the SAT or ACT in 2026?

As of October 2026: It depends on the campus. Of the 5 Louisiana public universities we checked, 1 requires a score (Southern University and A&M College); 4 are test-optional (Louisiana State University (LSU A&M), Louisiana Tech University, Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette).

The Louisiana Board of Regents sets minimum admission standards by institution tier (flagship, statewide, regional, HBCU), and a test score is only one of several ways to qualify -- a high-enough core-curriculum GPA, an associate degree, or early-college credit all work without any ACT/SAT. On top of that floor, LSU (the flagship) now requires its own applicants below a 3.5 weighted GPA to submit an ACT or SAT score for fall/summer 2027, moving toward requiring scores from everyone by summer 2028.

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 statewide rule

Varies by campus. Set by Louisiana Board of Regents, covering first-time first-year students, policy update dated February 3, 2026 (supersedes the March 21, 2025 version).

“The Board of Regents establishes minimum admission standards for first-year and transfer students to Louisiana public colleges and universities.” — laregents.edu

A test score is NOT universally required under the Board's floor -- it is one of several alternate qualifying paths (core-curriculum GPA, early-college credit hours, ACT/SAT, or an associate degree) that differ by tier: Flagship (LSU) GPA-on-the-Core at least 3.0, OR 18 early-college credit hours with at least 2.5 GPA, OR ACT at least 25/SAT equivalent, OR Associate Degree; Statewide (LA Tech, UL Lafayette, UNO) GPA-on-the-Core at least 2.5, OR 15 early-college credit hours with at least 2.25 GPA, OR ACT at least 23/SAT equivalent, OR Associate Degree; Regional (LSU-A, LSU-S, McNeese, Nicholls, Northwestern, Southeastern, UL Monroe) GPA-on-the-Core at least 2.0, OR 12 early-college credit hours with at least 2.0 GPA, OR ACT at least 20/SAT equivalent, OR Associate Degree; HBCU (Grambling, Southern Baton Rouge, Southern New Orleans) GPA-on-the-Core at least 2.0, OR 9 early-college credit hours with at least 2.0 GPA, OR ACT at least 20/SAT equivalent, OR Associate Degree. Individual four-year institutions may layer stricter requirements on top of this floor (see LSU below). CORRECTION (2026-10-08 verification): the research pass mislabeled the early-college-credit-hour counts (18/15/12/9) as the GPA-on-the-Core numbers; the actual GPA-on-the-Core minimums are 3.0/2.5/2.0/2.0, confirmed by direct extraction of the cited PDF's text.

University by university

The flagship and the state's largest public universities. Each label comes from the university's own admissions page, quoted; "applies to" is the entering term the page names. 1 required · 4 test-optional · 0 test-blind.

University	SAT / ACT	Applies to	CLT	Source
Louisiana State University (LSU A&M) Flagship Baton Rouge ACT/SAT requirement reinstated for applicants with weighted HS GPA below 3.5, effective for summer 2027 entry; all applicants will need a score by summer 2028 Applicants with a 3.5+ weighted GPA may still choose to submit a score; LSU's own rule is stricter than the Board of Regents' tier floor (ACT 25, or GPA-on-the-Core of 3.0, or 18 early-college credit hours with 2.5 GPA, or an associate degree), which does not itself mandate a test.	Test-optional	fall/summer 2027 first-year applicants	—	“Any first-year applicant whose cumulative, weighted high school GPA is lower than 3.5 is required to submit either an ACT or SAT score” lsu.edu
Southern University and A&M College Baton Rouge Southern University's HBCU tier floor under the Board of Regents is ACT 20, or GPA-on-the-Core of 2.0, or 9 early-college credit hours with 2.0 GPA, or an associate degree, but Southern's own published catalog criteria read as requiring an ACT/SAT subscore alongside a 2.0 GPA.	Required	current cycle	—	“Minimum ACT English Score of 18 or Math Score of 19 (SAT...450...500)” subr.smartcatalogiq.com
Louisiana Tech University Ruston In-state students may qualify on Core GPA of 2.5 alone, with no test required; out-of-state/home-schooled need ACT 26/SAT 1240 or Core GPA 3.0.	Test-optional	current cycle; institutional policy revised 03/13/2024	—	“ACT composite of at least 23 or SAT of 1130 with a minimum Core GPA of 2.0...[or] GPA on the Core of at least 2.5” latech.edu
Southeastern Louisiana University Hammond a 2022 local news report (WWLTV) states Southeastern "drops ACT score requirement for admission beginning fall 2022"; not independently confirmed from an official Southeastern page Southeastern is one of the seven Board of Regents 'Regional' tier institutions; the Board's table (confirmed by direct PDF table extraction) gives three parallel admission paths for that tier -- a GPA-on-the-Core of at least 2.0, OR an associate degree/12 early-college credit hours with at least a 2.0 GPA, OR an ACT of at least 20 (or SAT equivalent) -- so a test score is not mandatory. Southeastern's own freshman criteria page (https://www.southeastern.edu/apply/freshmen/criteria/) states only that 'We look at your high school GPA, high school coursework, and test scores (ACT or SAT) to determine admittance,' without saying a score is required, and does not appear to layer a stricter institutional test mandate on top of the Board floor the way LSU does. Southeastern's own University Catalog admission-criteria page (catalog.southeastern.edu/content.php?catoid=5&navoid=147), which search-engine indexing suggests restates this same GPA-or-ACT matrix in more detail (full 19-unit Core completers: ACT 21 OR GPA-on-Core 2.0; 17-18 units: ACT 23 OR GPA-on-Core 2.5 OR ACT 20 AND GPA 2.0), could NOT be fetched directly: the domain returns an AWS WAF browser-verification challenge (HTTP 202, empty body, header 'x-amzn-waf-action: challenge') to every automated fetch attempt (WebFetch and direct curl with multiple user agents, including a Googlebot UA), so it was not used as the cited source. Given the Board regulation explicitly names Southeastern under the Regional tier with a GPA-alone path, and the university's own page does not contradict or add to that floor, 'optional' is used here with the Board of Regents document as the official source rather than Southeastern's own page.	Test-optional	Regional-tier public universities (including Southeastern), per Board of Regents Minimum Admission Standards dated February 3, 2026	—	“GPA on the Core at least 2.0 OR Associate Degree ... OR ACT at least 20 OR SAT equivalent” laregents.edu
University of Louisiana at Lafayette Lafayette CORRECTION (2026-10-08 verification): the research pass's quote ('must take and present valid results...') does not appear on this page and was not confirmed anywhere; the page actually lists a GPA-only path for every requirement -- a 3.0 unweighted GPA satisfies the English and Math subscore requirements in place of a test, and in-state applicants can satisfy the additional requirement via the Core 4 curriculum at a 2.5 GPA instead of the 23 ACT/1130 SAT alternative. With a 2.0 cumulative GPA, a first-time freshman can be admitted with no ACT/SAT score at all, so the policy is optional, not required.	Test-optional	first-time freshmen, current cycle	—	“18 ACT English/500 SAT Evidence-Based Reading & Writing/ 250 Accuplacer Writing or 3.0 Overall high school GPA (unweighted)” louisiana.edu

Other public colleges in Louisiana with 5,000 or more students

Not individually checked for this report. The policy flag and the share of enrolled first-years who submitted a score are what each college reported to the federal government for the 2023 admissions cycle (IPEDS); check the college's own page before relying on it.

College	Students	Admit rate	Reported to IPEDS, 2023	Submitted SAT · ACT
Louisiana State University-Alexandria	5,632	93%	Required	5% · 95%
Northwestern State University of Louisiana	5,519	94%	Test-optional	3% · 92%
University of Louisiana at Monroe	5,022	75%	Required	10% · 88%
McNeese State University	5,005	68%	Required	9% · 88%

What this means for your family

Optional describes the checkbox, not the outcome. At test-optional colleges that publish both numbers, students who sent a score were admitted at a higher rate than students who did not, and 115 colleges nationally still require one. Take a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT, prepare for the whole test over 6 to 12 weeks, and decide college by college whether to send the score.

How much a score moves with preparation, by starting score: Test Prep Gurus results. The submit-or-withhold arithmetic: Do test scores still matter?

At a glance

JSON (all states) · For AI agents

As of October 2026: It depends on the campus. Of the 5 Louisiana public universities we checked, 1 requires a score (Southern University and A&M College); 4 are test-optional (Louisiana State University (LSU A&M), Louisiana Tech University, Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette).

Statewide rule: Louisiana Board of Regents — varies by campus, first-time first-year students, policy update dated February 3, 2026 (supersedes the March 21, 2025 version).

Louisiana State University (LSU A&M), the flagship, is test-optional for fall/summer 2027 first-year applicants.

Louisiana State University (LSU A&M): ACT/SAT requirement reinstated for applicants with weighted HS GPA below 3.5, effective for summer 2027 entry; all applicants will need a score by summer 2028.

Southeastern Louisiana University: a 2022 local news report (WWLTV) states Southeastern "drops ACT score requirement for admission beginning fall 2022"; not independently confirmed from an official Southeastern page.

Checked against each university's own admissions page, October 2026. Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).

Questions families ask

Is Louisiana test-optional for its public universities in 2026? It depends on the campus. Of the 5 Louisiana public universities we checked, 1 requires a score (Southern University and A&M College); 4 are test-optional (Louisiana State University (LSU A&M), Louisiana Tech University, Southeastern Louisiana University and University of Louisiana at Lafayette).

Does Louisiana State University (LSU A&M) require the SAT or ACT in 2026? Test-optional for fall/summer 2027 first-year applicants. Applicants with a 3.5+ weighted GPA may still choose to submit a score; LSU's own rule is stricter than the Board of Regents' tier floor (ACT 25, or GPA-on-the-Core of 3.0, or 18 early-college credit hours with 2.5 GPA, or an associate degree), which does not itself mandate a test. Source: lsu.edu.

Should my child take the SAT or ACT if Louisiana's public universities do not require it? Yes. Most families apply to colleges in more than one state, 115 four-year colleges nationally require a score, and at test-optional colleges students who submit a score are admitted at higher rates than students who do not. A strong score also opens merit scholarships. Start with a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT, prepare for the whole test over 6 to 12 weeks, and decide college by college whether to send it.

Method: for each state, the flagship and the public universities with roughly 8,000 or more undergraduates. Each policy label was read from the university's own first-year admissions page (or the state or system regulation), quoted verbatim, and re-checked by a second pass, October 2026. "Required" means a score is required of most first-year applicants (exemptions in the notes); "test-optional" means a score is considered if sent; "test-blind" means a score is not considered even if sent. Community colleges and private colleges are not covered. Policies change: the page carries the term each page named, and the report is refreshed each October.

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