Where 66 selective colleges stand on the SAT and ACT for students applying this fall, including each school’s policy on the ACT’s optional Science section. Every entry links to the college’s own admissions page.
For Fall 2027 entry, the class applying this fall, six Ivies require the SAT or ACT: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale. MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, UT Austin, Georgia Tech, and every Florida public university require scores too. Columbia, Princeton, and Notre Dame are test-optional for one more cycle and will require scores starting with Fall 2028 entry. On the ACT, Pomona is the only college we found that requires the Science section from every applicant who submits an ACT. Duke and Georgetown recommend it, and nearly everyone else treats it as optional. Sources for every school are linked in the sections below.
In 2022, MIT was the only highly selective college to reinstate its SAT and ACT requirement. Four years later, six Ivies require scores, and the other two will for students entering in Fall 2028.
These are the students applying this fall, most of them high school seniors graduating in 2027. Colleges label the same group by the year they will graduate from college, so a school’s “Class of 2031” is this group. We use entry year throughout to avoid the mix-up.
Six Ivies: Brown, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Penn, and Yale.
MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Johns Hopkins, Georgetown, the University of Miami, and most colleges within Carnegie Mellon.
UT Austin, Georgia Tech, the University of Georgia, the University of Tennessee, Ohio State’s Columbus campus, and all twelve Florida public universities. Purdue says it expects scores.
West Point and the Naval Academy.
Columbia, Princeton, Notre Dame, and Claremont McKenna start with Fall 2028 entry. So does the University of Alabama, which for now requires scores only from students below a 3.0 GPA.
Vanderbilt starts with Fall 2029 entry.
The University of California and Cal State do not use scores in admission. UC’s policy is under review, and Fall 2028 entry is the earliest a change could apply.
The 66 colleges our students apply to most often. Search by name or filter by policy. Each label links to the school’s own page, which is the source that counts.
Showing all 66 colleges
| College | Fall 2027 entry | Announced next | ACT Science |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ivy League | |||
| Brown University RI | Required | — | Optional |
| Columbia University NY | Optional | Required from Fall 2028 entry | Optional |
| Cornell University NY | Required | — | Optional |
| Dartmouth College NH | RequiredStudents at high schools abroad may send AP, IB, or A-level results instead | — | Optional |
| Harvard University MA | RequiredOther exams accepted only when SAT or ACT access is limited | — | Optional |
| University of Pennsylvania PA | RequiredHardship waiver available | — | Optional |
| Princeton University NJ | Optional | Required from Fall 2028 entry | Optional |
| Yale University CT | RequiredAP and IB scores no longer substitute (changed May 2026) | — | Optional |
| Private universities | |||
| MIT MA | Required | — | Optional |
| Stanford University CA | Required | — | Optional |
| Caltech CA | Required | — | Optional |
| Johns Hopkins University MD | Required | — | Optional |
| Georgetown University DC | Required | — | Recommended |
| Carnegie Mellon University PA | Varies by collegeRequired for Computer Science, test-flexible in most other colleges, optional for Fine Arts | — | No published statement |
| University of Miami FL | RequiredSome program exceptions | — | Optional |
| Duke University NC | Optional | — | Recommended |
| University of Chicago IL | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Northwestern University IL | Optional | — | Optional |
| Vanderbilt University TN | Optional | Required from Fall 2029 entry | Optional |
| University of Notre Dame IN | Optional | Required from Fall 2028 entry | Optional |
| Rice University TX | Recommended | — | Optional |
| New York University NY | Optional | — | Optional |
| Emory University GA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Tufts University MA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Washington University in St. Louis MO | Optional | — | Optional |
| Boston College MA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Boston University MA | OptionalOptional through Fall 2028 entry | — | No published statement |
| University of Southern California CA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Wake Forest University NC | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Northeastern University MA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| George Washington University DC | Optional | — | BA/BS–MD only |
| Liberal arts colleges | |||
| Amherst College MA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Williams College MA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Pomona College CA | Optional | — | Required |
| Swarthmore College PA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Bowdoin College ME | Optional | — | Optional |
| Middlebury College VT | Optional | — | Optional |
| Wellesley College MA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Barnard College NY | Optional | — | Optional |
| Claremont McKenna College CA | Optional | Required from Fall 2028 entry | Optional |
| Hamilton College NY | Optional | — | Optional |
| Washington and Lee University VA | Optional | — | Optional |
| Wesleyan University CT | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Harvey Mudd College CA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Vassar College NY | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Haverford College PA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Colby College ME | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Public universities | |||
| University of Texas at Austin TX | RequiredIncludes students admitted automatically by class rank | — | Optional |
| Georgia Tech GA | Required | — | Not used |
| University of Georgia GA | Required | — | Not used |
| University of Florida FL | RequiredSAT, ACT, or CLT, as at every Florida public university | — | Optional |
| Florida State University FL | RequiredSAT, ACT, or CLT | — | Optional |
| University of Tennessee, Knoxville TN | Required | — | Optional |
| Ohio State University OH | RequiredColumbus campus | — | Optional |
| Purdue University IN | ExpectedApplications without scores considered only in rare cases | — | Optional |
| University of Alabama AL | Required below a 3.0 GPA | Required for everyone from Fall 2028 entry | No published statement |
| University of Michigan MI | Optional | — | No published statement |
| University of Virginia VA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| UNC Chapel Hill NC | OptionalScores required only below a 2.8 weighted GPA | — | Optional |
| William & Mary VA | Optional | — | No published statement |
| University of Maryland MD | Optional | — | No published statement |
| Penn State PA | OptionalScores required for the accelerated premed-medical program | — | Not used |
| Binghamton University (SUNY) NY | Optional | — | Optional |
| University of California (all campuses) CA | Test-free | Policy under review; Fall 2028 entry at the earliest | Scores not used |
| Service academies | |||
| U.S. Military Academy (West Point) NY | RequiredSAT, ACT, or CLT | — | Optional |
| U.S. Naval Academy MD | RequiredSAT, ACT, or CLT, taken before February 1, 2027 | — | No published statement |
No colleges match. Try clearing the search or choosing “All.”
“No published statement” means the college’s admissions pages say nothing about the Science section. We treat that as optional and check again before a student registers. “Test-flexible” means scores are required but the student may send AP, IB, or similar results instead of the SAT or ACT.
Science became an optional section of the ACT in 2025, on the online test in April and on paper in September. The Composite is now the average of English, Math, and Reading alone. A student who adds Science gets a separate Science score, plus a STEM score that combines Math and Science. Students choose at registration.
Pomona College is the only college we found that requires Science from every applicant who sends an ACT. Pomona is test-optional, so the rule applies only to students who choose to submit an ACT. SAT submitters are unaffected.
Some published lists still show Marquette University as requiring Science. Marquette’s admissions page now says the section is not required.
The requirement shows up most often in combined bachelor’s and medical degree programs.
Duke encourages ACT takers to include Science, especially students interested in STEM. Georgetown, which requires the SAT or ACT, highly recommends it for students planning to major in the sciences. At a college this selective, we treat “recommended” as close to required.
Georgia Tech, University of Georgia, Penn State, University of Connecticut, and Brigham Young University say they do not consider the Science score.
Every Ivy, plus MIT, Stanford, Caltech, and Johns Hopkins, lists Science as optional, and the table above links to each school’s statement. Many colleges say nothing either way. For a longer list covering 244 colleges, see the National Test Prep Association’s ACT Science tracker.
It depends on the student, and we decide it case by case. The college list matters, and so does how the student does on Science compared with the other sections. Pomona, a BS/MD program, or Duke and Georgetown’s recommendations push toward taking it. A list where every school treats Science as optional leaves more room to choose. A test score is one part of an application, and the Science score is one part of that.
A student who would rather avoid the question can take the SAT, which has no science section and is accepted by every college in our table.
Plan to test. If even one school on the list requires a score, your student needs one, and the preparation is the same whether one school asks or ten. For a student applying to selective colleges in 2027 or 2028, a list without a single test-required school is now rare.
Whether to send a score to a test-optional school is a separate decision, and there is no formula for it. A score is one part of an application, read next to the transcript, the essays, and the recommendations. The same number can strengthen one file and add nothing to another. The school’s published score range, from its class profile or the Common Data Set, is one input we look at, not a cutoff. We make the call with each family once the score is in hand, school by school.
The entry year matters more than families expect. A student who graduates high school in 2028 enters college in Fall 2028, the first year Columbia, Princeton, Notre Dame, and Claremont McKenna require scores. Since 2022, nearly every policy change at the most selective colleges has moved toward requiring tests, and we plan on that continuing.
No. From 2024 to 2026 Yale let applicants send AP or IB scores in place of the SAT or ACT. In May 2026 it announced that applicants for Fall 2027 entry must submit the SAT or ACT. AP and IB scores can still be sent, but they no longer replace a test score.
A test-flexible school requires testing but lets the student choose what to send, usually AP, IB, or A-level results in place of the SAT or ACT. For Fall 2027, Carnegie Mellon is the main example: most of its colleges are test-flexible, while its School of Computer Science requires the SAT or ACT. Dartmouth accepts AP, IB, or A-level results from students at high schools outside the US.
Colleges say it will not. Whether a score would help depends on the rest of the application, since test scores are only one part of it. We look at each student and each school separately, once the score is in hand.
No. Since 2025 the ACT Composite is the average of English, Math, and Reading. Science is reported as its own score, and together with Math it produces a separate STEM score.
It is a reasonable option. The SAT has no science section, and no college in our table prefers one test over the other. We still choose the test by diagnostic rather than by section, because the right test is the one that produces the higher score. Our ACT–SAT concordance calculator puts the two scores on one scale.
The UC system does not consider SAT or ACT scores in admission or scholarships. In July 2026 its Regents asked the faculty to speed up a review of that policy, with a recommendation due in June 2027. Fall 2028 entry is the earliest any change could apply.
We checked every entry against the college’s own admissions site on September 10, 2026, and the table links to each source. Policies change, sometimes mid-cycle, so confirm on the school’s page before your student registers or applies. If the school’s page and ours disagree, the school’s page is right.
How we built this list: we started from the colleges our students apply to most often and checked each one on its own admissions site on September 10, 2026. For ACT Science, we used the NTPA tracker as a starting point and re-checked every school here at the source. Kate Fisher is a board member of the National Test Prep Association.
We check every school on your student’s list against its testing policy, then pick the test from two diagnostics. Tell us about your student and we’ll respond within 24 hours.
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