Does Penn Require the SAT or ACT in 2026? Yes -- 1500 to 1570 Mid-Range

As of October 2026: Yes. University of Pennsylvania requires the SAT or ACT for the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, and its own page says "Penn applicants are required to submit scores for the SAT or ACT." Enrolled first-years who sent an SAT scored 1500 to 1570 in the middle half, and ACT senders scored 34 to 35, with an admit rate of 5.9 percent.

Penn reinstated the testing requirement, so the score is no longer a choice. Here are the bands, the early decision math, and what the degree pays.

By Nick Standlea, Test Prep Gurus. Figures may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

Penn requires a score again, and the rule is in writing Penn's admissions page states that applicants are required to submit scores for the SAT or ACT. The rule applies to the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, which means fall 2027 entry. Penn reinstated the requirement for the 2025-26 cycle after a test-optional period, so families who remember the optional years are working from old news. There is no policy to debate and no choice to weigh. A score is part of a complete file.

The middle half of SAT senders sat between 1500 and 1570 Among enrolled first-years who sent an SAT, the lower percentile mark was 1500 and the upper mark was 1570. On the ACT the same bands were 34 and 35. Those are tight numbers. Some enrolled students scored below 1500, so the band is a target rather than a wall, but the room below it is small.

Early decision admitted 1,266 of 9,503 -- a 13.32 percent rate For fall 2025 entrants, Penn received 9,503 early decision applications and admitted 1,266, a rate of 13.32 percent. The overall rate that same cycle was 4.92 percent, drawn from 72,544 applicants and 3,570 admits. Early decision is binding, so the higher rate comes with a cost: the family agrees to attend before seeing other offers.

Does University of Pennsylvania require the SAT or ACT?

This row comes from Penn's own admissions testing page. The quote is the college's wording, not ours.

College	Policy	Applies to	What changed	In the college's words	Source
University of Pennsylvania	required	2026-2027 admissions cycle (fall 2027 entry)	reinstated for the 2025-26 cycle after a test-optional period	Penn applicants are required to submit scores for the SAT or ACT.	Source

One college, one row. Policy language can change between cycles, so read the source link before you file.

What scores, odds, cost, and payoff does the federal data show?

Score bands, submit shares, price, and earnings for University of Pennsylvania, from IPEDS Admissions 2023 and College Scorecard.

Measure	Value
applicants	59465
sat_25	1500
sat_75	1570
act_25	34
act_75	35
sat_submit_pct	51
act_submit_pct	19
test_policy_2026	Required
admits	3508
admit_rate	5.9
application_fee	75
net_price_with_aid	28699
full_price	89028
npc_url	https://npc.collegeboard.org/student/app/upenn
earnings_10yr	111371
ten_years_pay	1113710
four_years_cost	114796
net_gain	998914
four_year_grad_pct	96.5
median_debt_completers	15715

Bands describe enrolled first-years who submitted that test (fall 2023 class, the latest federal file). Repeated applicant rows from the source file are shown once.

How does early decision compare with the overall rate?

Penn's Common Data Set reports early decision counts next to the full first-year pool for fall 2025 entrants.

Cycle	ED applicants	ED admits	ED rate	Total applicants	Total admits	Overall rate	Source
fall 2025 entrants (CDS 2025-26)	9,503	1,266	13.3%	72,544	3,570	4.9%	Source

Early decision is binding. The rate is higher, but the pool includes recruited athletes and legacy applicants, which the public file does not break out.

Does University of Pennsylvania require the SAT or ACT in 2026?

Yes. Penn lists its policy as required for the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, which covers students entering in fall 2027. The college's own page says it plainly: "Penn applicants are required to submit scores for the SAT or ACT." There is no optional path and no waiver listed in that line.

This is a change from the recent past. Penn reinstated the requirement for the 2025-26 cycle after a test-optional period. Many families still carry a picture of Penn from the optional years, when a strong student could file without a score. That picture is out of date.

The practical effect is simple. A student who has not taken a full SAT or ACT does not have a complete Penn application. The test moves from a question you debate in the spring of junior year to a task you schedule, like the essay or the recommendation letters.

One more detail matters for planning. The policy row above names a cycle, not a forever rule. Colleges review testing policy each year, and the wording can shift. We read the source page again each fall before we tell a family what to do. The link sits in the table so you can read the same sentence we read.

What SAT score does Penn's enrolled class carry?

Among enrolled first-years who sent an SAT, the lower percentile mark was 1500 and the upper mark was 1570. That is the middle half of the class. Some students landed below 1500 and some landed above 1570.

A band is not a cutoff. Penn did not reject every student under 1500, and a 1570 did not promise a seat. Still, the band tells you where the file stops drawing attention to itself. At 1500 and up, the score reads as in range, and readers move on to the rest of the application.

We use the lower mark as the planning floor and the upper mark as the comfortable target. A student sitting well under 1500 in October of junior year is not out of the running. That gap is a normal distance to close with steady work over a few months.

The band describes the fall 2023 class, the latest federal file. Classes shift a little year to year, but not by hundreds of points at a college this selective. Treat 1500 to 1570 as the live range for the student applying now.

Keep in mind what the band measures. It covers students who enrolled and who submitted that test. It is not the average of everyone who applied, and it is not the score of everyone admitted.

What ACT score does Penn's enrolled class carry?

Among enrolled first-years who sent an ACT, the lower percentile mark was 34 and the upper mark was 35. That is a one-point band, which is as tight as these numbers get.

The ACT is scored out of 36, so a 34 already sits near the top of the scale. The small gap between 34 and 35 means a single missed question in one section can move a student across the whole band. That makes accuracy, not just content, the thing to drill.

Families sometimes read the tight ACT band as proof that the ACT is harder at Penn. It is not. The two tests sit at about the same place in the class. A 1500 SAT and a 34 ACT are telling the reader a similar story.

What the tight band does change is the pacing plan. On the ACT, timing is the main obstacle for most strong students. A student who knows the math but runs out of time at the end of a section will land below the band. We spend prep hours there.

If your child has only taken one test so far, take one full practice run of the other before you decide. Students often find one format fits them better by a point or two.

How many applicants send the SAT versus the ACT?

In the federal file, 51 percent of enrolled first-years submitted an SAT and 19 percent submitted an ACT. Those two shares do not add to one hundred, because the file covers a class admitted under the earlier policy, when some students sent nothing.

The split tells you something useful anyway. The SAT is the more common choice by a wide margin at Penn. That reflects where the students come from more than any preference by the college.

Penn treats the two tests the same. The policy sentence names both. A strong ACT is read the same way a strong SAT is read, and there is no bonus for sending both.

For a family choosing a test, the deciding factor is the student, not the submit share. We run a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT, compare the two results, and pick the one with more room to grow. Then we prepare for that one test and stop splitting attention.

A note on the shares: the fall 2023 class could apply without a score, so these percentages describe a different rule than the one your child faces. The federal file does not report figures under the current required policy.

How hard is it to get into Penn?

Penn admitted 3,508 students from 59,465 applicants in the federal file, an admit rate of 5.9 percent. The Common Data Set for fall 2025 entrants shows 3,570 admits from 72,544 applicants, an overall rate of 4.92 percent.

Two files, two years, two numbers. The direction is clear: more applicants, about the same number of seats, so the rate drifts down. We plan around the lower figure because it is the newer one.

At that rate, no score makes a student safe. A 1570 is in range at Penn and still faces long odds. That is not a reason to skip the test. It is a reason to keep the rest of the list honest, with colleges where the same student is a likely admit.

Here is the way we frame it for parents. The score is the part of the file you can move on a schedule. Grades are mostly set by senior fall. Activities took four years to build. A test score can move a long way in a few months of real work.

So the score is not a ticket. It is the piece that keeps the door open while everything else in the file does its job.

Does applying early decision improve the odds at Penn?

For fall 2025 entrants, Penn admitted 1,266 of 9,503 early decision applicants, a rate of 13.32 percent, against an overall rate of 4.92 percent. On paper the early pool fares better.

The gap is real but it is not all strategy. The early pool carries recruited athletes, children of alumni, and students who have known for years that Penn is the first choice. The public file does not break those groups out, so the number you see mixes them in with everyone else.

Early decision is binding. If Penn admits your child, the family agrees to attend and to pull other applications. That promise is made before any other offer arrives, which matters most for families comparing aid packages.

The early pool is also small next to the whole. The 9,503 early applicants sit against 72,544 total applicants in the same cycle. Most of the class is read in the regular round.

Our rule of thumb is plain. Apply early decision when Penn is clearly the top choice and the net price estimate already works for your family. Run the net price calculator first, and treat the binding promise as the real cost of the higher rate.

What does Penn cost, and what does a family actually pay?

The full price at Penn is 89,028 dollars, and the average net price with aid is 28,699 dollars. The application fee is 75 dollars.

The gap between those two figures is the point. Most families at a college with this kind of aid budget do not pay the sticker number. The net price is an average across aided students, so your own figure can land above or below it.

The only way to see your family's number is the net price calculator, which Penn hosts through the College Board. We list the link in the table. It takes income and asset details and returns an estimate in a few minutes.

We run that calculator before the application, not after the admit. Families who wait find out in April that the plan does not fit, and by then an early decision promise may already be made.

One cost note parents often miss: the 75 dollar fee is per application, and a full list of colleges adds up. Fee waivers exist for families who qualify, and the application platforms carry the request inside the form itself.

Do Penn students graduate and what do they earn?

Penn's four-year graduation rate is 96.5 percent, and median earnings ten years after entry are 111,371 dollars. Median debt for completers is 15,715 dollars.

The graduation number is the quiet one that matters most. At many colleges, families budget four years and pay for more. At Penn, nearly everyone finishes on time, so the four-year cost figure is close to the real cost.

The federal file puts four years of cost at 114,796 dollars and ten years of pay at 1,113,710 dollars, which it reports as a net gain of 998,914 dollars. Those are modeled figures built from the net price and the earnings median, not a promise about any one student.

Debt of 15,715 dollars for the median completer is low by national standards. It is a small sum against a degree that pays six figures a decade out. For families weighing loans, that ratio is the number to hold onto.

Earnings medians also hide a wide spread. A Penn graduate in finance and a Penn graduate in social work sit on either side of that median by a lot. Read it as a center point, not a forecast.

Should my child send a score if it is below the band?

Under a required policy, there is no choice to make: Penn's page says applicants are required to submit scores for the SAT or ACT. A score below 1500 still goes in.

That changes the question from whether to send to how high to get before the deadline. Some enrolled students scored below the 1500 floor, so a lower score is not automatically fatal. It simply has to be carried by the rest of the file.

We tell families to pick a target inside the band and work backward from the test date they choose. A student who starts well below the band in the fall of junior year still has time to prepare and sit again.

The habit that moves scores is simple: prepare for the whole test every sitting. Students who drill only math because math is the weak section lose points on reading they used to get. The test is scored as a whole, so study it as a whole.

Most of our students need 6 to 12 weeks of focused prep to make a real jump. That window is short enough to fit between seasons and long enough to change the number on the page.

How long does test prep take before a Penn-level score?

Most of our students need 6 to 12 weeks of focused prep to make a real jump toward the 1500 to 1570 band. That window is the planning unit we use with every family.

Start with a full timed practice test. The gap between that score and 1500 on the SAT, or 34 on the ACT, tells you how much of the window you need. A small gap takes the short end. A large gap takes the long end, and sometimes a second block.

Inside the window, the rule is the same every week: prepare for the whole test every sitting. Reading, writing, and math all count in the single score a reader sees. A plan that ignores one part trades points for points.

We also ask families to protect the hours. Six weeks of steady work beats twelve weeks of scattered work. The calendar matters as much as the material.

Nothing here promises a number. The band in the table describes the class that enrolled, not a guarantee for any one student. What the window does is turn a vague hope into a plan with dates on it.

What else should we know about these numbers?

The two main sources sit in different years: IPEDS Admissions 2023 and the federal file behind it, and Penn's Common Data Set for fall 2025 entrants. That is why you see 59,465 applicants in one table and 72,544 in the other.

Neither number is wrong. They count different classes. When we compare, we say which file we are reading, and we do not mix a count from one year with a count from another.

Some things are simply not reported. The federal file does not say how many applicants sent no score at all. The Common Data Set does not break out recruited athletes or legacy applicants inside the 9,503 early decision applicants. We name those gaps rather than guess at them.

Policy language can also change between cycles. The table says the requirement applies to the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, which means fall 2027 entry. The source link is there so you can read it yourself the week you file.

Read the tables as a picture of a class that already enrolled. They are the best guide we have to what a strong Penn file looks like, and they are not a scorecard for your child.

What should we do this month?

Take one full, timed mock SAT and one full, timed mock ACT, then aim at the 1500 to 1570 or 34 to 35 band with 6 to 12 weeks of prep. That is the whole plan in one sentence.

Step one is the baseline. A practice score taken under real timing tells you the gap in points. Without it, every prep decision is a guess, and families spend money on the wrong section.

Step two is picking one test. Compare the two mock results, choose the stronger fit, and stop preparing for both. Penn reads them the same way, so there is no gain from doing double work.

Step three is the calendar. Put the target test date on it, count back 6 to 12 weeks, and block the study hours like a practice schedule. Prepare for the whole test every sitting, not just the weak section.

Step four is the money. Run the net price calculator linked in the table before you commit to an early decision plan, so the binding promise matches what the family can pay.

The move: take a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT with us. Call 949.229.5359 or go to prepgurus.com/take-the-next-step, and we will read the results with you.

Questions parents ask

Does Penn require the SAT or ACT for 2026?
Penn lists its policy as required for the 2026-2027 admissions cycle, which covers students entering in fall 2027.

What SAT score do I need for Penn?
Among enrolled first-years who sent an SAT, the lower percentile mark was 1500 and the upper mark was 1570.

What ACT score do I need for Penn?
Among enrolled first-years who sent an ACT, the lower percentile mark was 34 and the upper mark was 35.

What is Penn's acceptance rate?
Penn admitted 3,508 students from 59,465 applicants in the federal file, an admit rate of 5.9 percent.

Is early decision easier at Penn?
For fall 2025 entrants, Penn admitted 1,266 of 9,503 early decision applicants, a rate of 13.32 percent, against an overall rate of 4.92 percent.

What does Penn cost after aid?
The full price at Penn is 89,028 dollars, and the average net price with aid is 28,699 dollars.

Do Penn students graduate on time and earn well?
Penn's four-year graduation rate is 96.5 percent, and median earnings ten years after entry are 111,371 dollars.

How long should my child prepare for the test?
Most of our students need 6 to 12 weeks of focused prep to make a real jump.

Method and sources: The policy row and quote come from University of Pennsylvania's own admissions testing page, read as of October 2026, and it names the 2026-2027 admissions cycle. Score bands, submit shares, admit counts, price, graduation, earnings, and debt come from IPEDS Admissions 2023 and the College Scorecard, served through highschoolreach.com; the bands describe enrolled first-years who submitted that test in the fall 2023 class, which is the latest federal file. Early decision counts come from Penn's own Common Data Set for fall 2025 entrants, so those figures sit in a different year than the federal file and are not directly comparable. The federal file does not report how many applicants sent no score at all, the sources carry no application or test deadline dates, and the Common Data Set does not break out recruited athletes or legacy applicants inside the early decision pool, so those gaps remain open here. This page covers one college and ranks nothing; rows are printed as the sources report them.