As of October 2026. Every number below is sourced; the list is at the end.
The UC application closes on November 30. For high school seniors in the 2026-27 school year, the ones who start college in fall 2027, that date is the whole story. They send no SAT or ACT score. UC says so plainly: no applicant for admission for fall 2027 submits one. The family I would want to talk to this month is the one with a junior. UC has not said what happens to them. In its own words, the University "has not determined whether admissions requirements for fall 2028, or any future admissions cycle, will change." And fall 2028 is not far off. It is the very next cycle.
What the November 30 date means for a senior
UC runs one filing period for the fall. It opens October 1 and closes November 30. A student can start the application as early as August 1, so the form itself can be most of the way done before the window even opens.
For your senior, this settles the testing question. No score is read, so there is nothing left to prep for at UC. What UC reads instead is mostly the GPA, its own capped weighted version. The gap between the bands is steep. At UCLA in fall 2025, 15.1% of applicants in the 4.00-and-above band were admitted. In the 3.70-to-3.99 band it was 1.6%. That is 12,548 admits in the top band against 449 in the one just below it. You can see the full band-by-band numbers for UCLA on our research site.
Fall 2028 admission is the next cycle, not a distant one
"Fall 2028" reads like something years away. It is not, and this is the part most families miss.
It means the next cycle. A student who starts college in fall 2028 is a high school junior right now, and files a UC application between October 1 and November 30, 2027. That is about twelve months from now.
So when UC says it has not decided about fall 2028, it is talking about today's juniors. The students in question are sitting in eleventh grade this morning.
What UC has actually said, and when we will know
Here is the calendar, with nothing added to it.
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| October 1 to November 30, 2026 | UC filing period for fall 2027 admission. No SAT or ACT score is submitted. |
| February 12, 2027 | BOARS, UC's faculty admissions board, owes its report on standardized testing to the Academic Council. |
| No later than June 2027 | The Board of Regents receives the recommendations. |
| October 1 to November 30, 2027 | Today's juniors file, for fall 2028 admission. UC has not determined whether requirements for fall 2028 will change. |
Two things follow from that table. The decision lands after this year's seniors are already done. And it lands only a few months before today's juniors file. Nobody knows yet. BOARS owes its report by February 12, 2027, and the Regents receive the recommendations no later than June 2027.
My read, and I will label it as a read
I think UC and CSU go back to looking at scores. I said the same thing in Inside Higher Ed in January 2026, and it is still what I expect.
But I want to be straight with you about which part is fact. The fact is the calendar above. The opinion is mine. UC has not decided, and it has not said what a change would look like, so anyone telling you the SAT is definitely back for your junior is guessing. So am I.
Which leaves you making a decision before UC makes its own.
What a junior can do while UC decides
A score does more than one job. UC is one line on a college list. Plenty of colleges already require a score, among them Georgia Tech, Purdue, UT Austin and every service academy. Scores also drive merit money. Three of our recent students are a fair picture of it: a 31 ACT brought a $112,000 four-year award at TCU, a 30 ACT brought $144,000 at Chapman, and a 1330 SAT brought $91,000 at SMU.
None of that depends on what UC decides in June. A junior who tests well in the spring is covered either way. A junior who waits for the ruling, then has to start from zero in the summer before senior year, is not.
Our rule of thumb is 6 to 12 weeks of prep before any sitting, on the whole exam rather than one section.
What our students gain
Across our program completers, students who start at 1350 or below on the SAT average 190 points of gain, from 1210 to 1400. Of that group, 63% gain 200 points or more. Students starting at 27 or below on the ACT average 5.7 points, from 22 to 28. For comparison, published research puts a typical retest-with-prep gain near 30 SAT points, in a review by Briggs for NACAC in 2009. Our full results page shows the method and the bands. An average is not a promise, and your student is not an average.
The move
If you have a senior, finish the application before November 30 and leave the testing question alone.
If you have a junior, do the five steps we give every eleventh grader. If your student sat the digital PSAT this month, that score is step one, so use it. If they did not, step one is a mock ACT instead. Either way, the next step is choosing the ACT or the SAT on evidence rather than a hunch, then making a testing plan, then executing it. We give both diagnostics free, one ACT and one SAT, so you can see which exam fits before you spend anything.
Book the diagnostic at prepgurus.com/take-the-next-step or call us at 949.229.5359.
Questions parents ask
Does my senior still need an SAT or ACT score for UC?
No. UC does not read a score for fall 2027, and the filing period closes on November 30.
What does fall 2028 admission mean?
It means the next cycle. A student who starts college in fall 2028 is a high school junior right now, and files a UC application between October 1 and November 30, 2027.
Will UC require the SAT or ACT again?
Nobody knows yet. BOARS owes its report by February 12, 2027, and the Regents receive the recommendations no later than June 2027.
Written by Nick Standlea, founder of Test Prep Gurus. Updated October 2026.
Sources
- University of California, Applying as a freshman -- fall filing period October 1 to November 30; application opens as early as August 1 -- https://admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/how-to-apply/applying-as-a-freshman/
- University of California -- Statement from UC Academic Senate Chair Ahmet Palazoglu on the BOARS undergraduate admissions review (no applicant for admission for fall 2027 submits a score; BOARS report to the Academic Council by February 12, 2027; Board of Regents receives recommendations no later than June 2027; the University "has not determined whether admissions requirements for fall 2028, or any future admissions cycle, will change") -- https://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/press-room/statement-uc-academic-senate-chair-ahmet-palazoglu-boars-undergraduate-admissions-review
- University of California Office of the President -- freshman admissions by capped weighted GPA band, fall 2025 (UCLA) -- https://highschoolreach.com/colleges/university-of-california-los-angeles
- Nick Standlea, "UC's test-free experiment isn't going well," Inside Higher Ed, January 5, 2026 -- https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/views/2026/01/05/ucs-test-free-experiment-isnt-going-well-opinion
- Briggs, D. -- review of SAT coaching and prep efficacy studies for NACAC, 2009 (typical gain of approximately 30 SAT points); no public URL, cited from the study
- Test Prep Gurus -- program results for completers, and the method behind them -- https://www.prepgurus.com/results-at-test-prep-gurus
- Test Prep Gurus -- free diagnostic SAT and ACT, program structure, merit awards of recent students -- https://www.prepgurus.com/frequently-asked-questions
- Test Prep Gurus -- "Testing: What Changed and Who Should Test?", IUSD College Fair presentation, October 5, 2026 (colleges requiring a score; recent students' merit awards; the five steps for eleventh grade)