The test-optional era is ending: which US universities now require the SAT or ACT

A growing group of the most selective US universities has reinstated a testing requirement, reversing the test-optional policies most adopted in 2020. MIT, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown all require an SAT or ACT score for first-year applicants in the 2026–27 cycle. Stanford, by contrast, kept testing optional for its most recent admitted class. The policy is set by each university individually, is reviewed cycle by cycle, and has to be checked on that university's own admissions page rather than assumed from its general reputation.

• MIT, Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, Cornell and Brown require the SAT or ACT for first-year applicants in the 2026–27 cycle; none of them prefers one test over the other.
• Dartmouth and Cornell each reinstated the requirement after a multi-year internal study of their own admissions data, not as an assumption about testing in general.
• Stanford kept SAT/ACT scores optional for the Class of 2029: this is not a fixed university-wide rule, and applicants have to check each institution separately.
• For applicants outside the United States, several universities accept AP, IB predicted or final scores, or GCSE/A-Level results as an alternative route to the same testing requirement.
• English proficiency tests such as the TOEFL or IELTS cannot substitute for the SAT/ACT requirement where a university requires it: these are two separate requirements.
• A testing policy is reviewed by each admissions cycle. A university's status as 'test-optional' two or three years ago is not evidence of its status now.

What actually changed

In 2020, most US universities suspended their SAT/ACT requirement as a pandemic-era accommodation, and for several admissions cycles it looked like the shift might be permanent. It was not. Starting with Dartmouth's announcement in February 2024, a growing list of the most selective US universities has reinstated the requirement, each following its own internal review rather than a shared industry decision. For an applicant, this means the same university can genuinely have changed its policy since a parent, an older sibling or a search result last checked it.

Why universities reversed course

The universities that reinstated testing point to internal research rather than a shared external pressure. Dartmouth commissioned a study by its own economists and an educational sociologist, which found that SAT/ACT scores, read against the local norms of an applicant's own school, helped identify strong candidates from under-resourced schools who might otherwise not stand out on transcript alone. Dartmouth's public account of the study states that some applicants from lower-income backgrounds withheld strong scores under the test-optional policy, when submitting them would have strengthened their application. Cornell's Task Force on Standardized Testing in Admissions reached a comparable conclusion after its own multi-year analysis: test scores, read in context with the rest of an application, added information rather than working against equity.

This detail matters for an applicant from outside the United States. The argument for reinstating testing was built on each university's own historical admissions data, not on a claim that international applicants specifically need to test. But it does mean the requirement, where it exists, applies to international applicants the same way it applies to domestic ones, with a separate route through AP, IB, A-Level or national leaving exam results where a university offers one.

What this changes for an international applicant

• Check the testing policy on the admissions page of every university on the list separately: a university that was test-optional two admissions cycles ago may not be now.
• Where a university lists an alternative to the SAT/ACT for applicants outside the US (AP, IB, A-Level, a national leaving exam), confirm which of these your own school offers and in what timeframe results or predictions are issued.
• An English proficiency test (TOEFL, IELTS, Duolingo, Cambridge) is a separate requirement. Harvard states directly that English proficiency scores cannot be used to meet the SAT/ACT requirement.
• Where a test is required, self-reported scores are normally accepted at application stage, but official scores from the testing agency are required before enrolling if admitted; a mismatch can lead to an offer being withdrawn.
• Where a test is optional, as at Stanford for the most recent cycle, submitting a strong score can still be part of a competitive application; the absence of a requirement is not the same as the absence of a benefit.

Some universities superscore results across multiple test dates, taking the highest section scores regardless of which sitting they came from; Yale, Cornell and Brown all do this for both the SAT and the ACT, though the exact mechanics of superscoring differ. This is a separate check for each university, and it changes how far in advance a test date should be planned.

As part of admissions support for US universities, EDMONT checks the testing requirement for every university on a client's list against its current admissions page and builds a testing timeline that fits the application calendar.