Do SAT and ACT exams still matter?

Yes, and more than they did three years ago. As of October 2026, 23 well-known colleges, including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Yale, Caltech, UT Austin and Cornell (for fall 2026), have brought back a testing requirement after studying their own test-optional results. At the colleges that stayed test-optional, students who sent a score were admitted at a higher rate than students who did not, from 1.2 times at Vanderbilt to 3.2 times at Cornell Arts & Sciences, by the colleges' own published numbers. The University of California and the Cal State campuses still do not look at scores, but UC's faculty are reviewing that policy now, with a report due in February 2027. A strong SAT or ACT score also opens scholarship money. Roughly half of all scholarships are tied to a GPA and an SAT or ACT score.

Who brought testing back

Across the 1,396 four-year colleges in High School Reach's database that report a test policy, 1,263 are test-optional, 101 require scores, and 32, including every UC and CSU campus, do not consider scores at all (federal IPEDS data, 2023). The colleges that reinstated testing said why. Dartmouth's own faculty study found that students were withholding scores around 1400 that would have helped them. UT Austin found that students who submitted scores earned first-semester grades 0.86 points higher than students who did not. Our full list of reinstating colleges, with each college's statement, is on High School Reach: Do test scores still matter?

What "test-optional" really means

Optional describes the checkbox, not the outcome. If 36% of a college's applicants submitted a score but 51% of its admitted students did, which is what USC published for the Class of 2028, then submitters were admitted at a meaningfully higher rate. Worked through, that is about 1.9 times. The same arithmetic runs 3.2 times at Cornell Arts & Sciences, 2.0 times at Notre Dame and 1.2 times at Vanderbilt. A student who never tests has quietly crossed the 101 required-score colleges off the list before applying. A student who tests can still choose, college by college, whether to send the score.

What about the UC and Cal State?

Both systems are test-blind today, and applicants for fall 2027 will not submit scores. UC's Academic Senate has asked its admissions board to review SAT and ACT use, with a report due February 12, 2027 and recommendations to the Regents by June 2027. We expect UC to look at scores again. In the meantime, most families applying to a UC also apply to private colleges and out-of-state universities that read scores, so our advice is unchanged: test.

What this means for your family

Start with a free mock SAT and a free mock ACT so you know where your student stands today. Plan on 6 to 12 weeks of preparation before the first official test, one or two sessions a week with homework in between. Prepare for the whole test, not one section. Our students who start at 27 or below on the ACT gain 5.7 points on average, and 63% of our SAT students who start at 1350 or below gain 200 points or more. The full results, by starting score, are on our results page.

Sources: each college's published admissions data and policy statements, compiled on High School Reach; federal IPEDS 2023; University of California Academic Senate, 2026. Updated October 2026.