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College lists

Colleges that still require test scores

After years of test-optional policies, a wave of selective colleges has brought the SAT or ACT requirement back for the 2026 cycle. If a school is on this list, you must submit a score; there is no test-optional path. Plan your testing calendar around the most demanding requirement on your list.

These are also, generally, schools where the score genuinely matters in the read, so it is worth the preparation. Check how your score sits against each school's middle range in the chances calculator.

76 schools on this list

Caltech admits 3% Harvard admits 4.2% Princeton admits 4.4% Penn admits 4.9% Tsinghua admits 5% Dartmouth admits 6.0% NUS admits 6% Cornell admits 8.4% Georgetown admits 12% Georgia Tech admits 12% HKU admits 12% Imperial admits 14% Johns Hopkins admits 14% Oxford admits 14% Peking admits 15% LSE admits 16% CUHK admits 18% Cardiff admits 20% Lancaster admits 20% Cambridge admits 21% ESADE admits 22% Florida admits 24% FSU admits 24% St. Gallen admits 25% KCL admits 26% ETH Zurich admits 27% UT Austin admits 27% Kyoto admits 28% HKUST admits 30% NTU Singapore admits 30% Sydney admits 30% ANU admits 35% Bocconi admits 35% UNSW admits 35% Tokyo admits 36% Monash admits 40% TU Delft admits 40% UCF admits 40% Tennessee admits 42% UCD admits 45% UQ admits 45% Auburn admits 46% Purdue admits 50% Swansea admits 51% MIT admits 52% Edinburgh admits 53% Erasmus Rotterdam admits 53% Strathclyde admits 55% Warwick admits 57% Durham admits 58% Yale admits 59% Leeds admits 60% Manchester admits 60% Ohio State admits 60% Stanford admits 61% UCL admits 63% Bath admits 65% Brown admits 65% Surrey admits 65% Sussex admits 65% UEA admits 65% Utrecht admits 65% Bristol admits 67% Exeter admits 68% Sheffield admits 68% Glasgow admits 70% Leicester admits 70% Melbourne admits 70% Nottingham admits 70% Birmingham admits 72% Loughborough admits 72% Queen's Belfast admits 72% UGA admits 75% York admits 79% Reading admits 80% Southampton admits 80%

See your real chances at every one of these.

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More college lists

Test-blind colleges 18 Test-optional colleges 165 Colleges where the essay matters most 77 Colleges that decide on the numbers 21 Colleges that no longer consider legacy 167 Public universities with the biggest in-state advantage 63 The most selective colleges 288 Accessible colleges with high acceptance rates 42 Colleges that track demonstrated interest 31 Colleges that weigh character most heavily 90