Submit if your score is at or above the 25th percentile of that school's admitted class. Withhold if it's clearly below. That's the rule, it's per-school rather than per-student, and it means the same 1380 can be worth sending to one college on your list and worth holding back from another. Everything below is how to apply that cleanly, and where it doesn't hold.
Where policy actually stands, August 2026
The direction of travel has been one way for three years, and it accelerated this summer.
| Institution | Status for 2026–27 | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Brown, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn | Required | Six of the eight Ivies |
| Princeton | Optional — final year | Requires from 2027–28 |
| Columbia | Optional — final year | Announced June 2026; requires from 2027–28 |
| MIT, Caltech, Georgetown | Required | Reinstated ahead of most peers |
| UT Austin | Required | |
| Florida, Georgia, Tennessee public systems | Required | Statewide policy, not per-campus |
| Auburn | Required from fall 2027 | All applicants, regardless of GPA |
| University of Alabama | Required from 2027 entering class | Only for applicants below a 3.0 GPA |
| Vanderbilt | Optional through fall 2027 | |
| University of Wisconsin | Optional through 2027 | Regents to reassess |
Columbia's June 2026 announcement was the meaningful one. It had been the only Ivy with a stated permanent commitment to test-optional admissions, and its reversal leaves no elite holdout for other institutions to point at. If you're planning for a student currently in ninth or tenth grade, assume testing will be required at most selective schools by the time they apply.
Verify each school on your own list before you decide anything. Policies have moved several times a year recently, and a page written in spring is often wrong by autumn — including this one. Our list of colleges requiring the SAT carries the fuller roster.
The rule, and why the 25th percentile
Every college publishes the middle 50% of admitted students' scores — a 25th and a 75th percentile. Those two numbers are the whole decision.
The 25th percentile is the threshold because of what it represents: a quarter of admitted students scored at or below it, and they were admitted anyway. A score at that line is not evidence against you. It's inside the range the admissions office already found acceptable, which is exactly the bar a submitted score needs to clear.
Below that line, the score starts doing work you don't want it to. Not disqualifying you — but drawing attention to the weakest number in your file, in a process where the alternative is that it simply doesn't appear.
| Your score vs. their middle 50% | Decision | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| At or above the 75th percentile | Submit | Certain. This is an asset. |
| Between the median and the 75th | Submit | Certain. |
| Between the 25th and the median | Submit | Strong. It's within range and supports the file. |
| Just below the 25th (within ~20 points) | Judgment call | See the tie-breakers below. |
| Clearly below the 25th | Withhold | Strong, at test-optional schools. |
Note how much of the table says submit. Students systematically under-submit — the score feels like a judgement on them personally, so a number well inside a school's range gets withheld out of nerves. If you're within the middle 50%, send it.
You'll read that admitted students' published percentiles are inflated at test-optional schools, because only strong scorers submit. That's true, and people then conclude the ranges are useless. They're not — they're just the correct benchmark for a different question. You're deciding whether your submitted score will look competitive among submitted scores, and the published range is precisely the distribution of submitted scores. It's the right yardstick for the decision you're making.
The tie-breakers, for when you're just below
Within about 20 points of the 25th percentile, the percentile rule stops resolving it. Four things break the tie:
- Section split. A 1350 made of 750 Math and 600 R&W is a strong submission for an engineering programme and a weak one for a humanities application. Admissions readers look at the sections, not just the composite.
- Your transcript's story. If your GPA is outstanding, a middling score adds nothing and risks muddying a clean record. If your GPA is uneven — a bad sophomore year, an upward trend — a solid score is corroboration that the record alone doesn't provide.
- Your school's context. Coming from a school that sends few students to selective colleges, a score in range is external evidence in a file that lacks it. Coming from a competitive feeder school where the reader knows the curriculum, the transcript already carries that weight.
- What your list looks like. If your score is above the 25th at seven of your ten schools, submitting to all ten is usually simpler than a split strategy — with the exception of genuine reaches, where you can withhold selectively.
Where test-optional isn't optional
This is the part that catches families out, because the admissions policy and the money policy are frequently different documents.
- Merit scholarships. Plenty of test-optional schools still require scores for automatic or competitive merit aid, and some publish score-indexed award tables. Applying without a score can cost real money at a school that would have admitted you either way.
- Honors colleges. Often a separate application with its own requirements, frequently including a score.
- Specific majors. Direct-admit engineering, nursing, and business programmes sometimes require scores when the university at large doesn't.
- Course placement. Not admissions, but a submitted score can place you out of introductory maths or writing requirements — worth actual tuition dollars.
- NCAA eligibility. Requirements here are set separately from any college's admissions policy.
- International applicants. Score expectations often differ from domestic policy at the same institution.
Before deciding to withhold anywhere, check that school's scholarship page specifically. Not the admissions page — the financial aid one.
Test-optional and test-blind are different things
Worth stating because they get used interchangeably and they aren't.
Test-optional: you choose. A submitted score is read and considered.
Test-blind (or score-free): scores are not looked at, even if you send them. The University of California system is the best-known example. Sending a score there accomplishes exactly nothing.
Test-flexible: a score is required but you may substitute alternatives — AP results, IB scores. Rarer, and always spelled out on the school's page.
What happens when you withhold
Nothing punitive. But the weight has to go somewhere, and it goes onto everything else in the file: grades, course rigour, essays, recommendations, and what you've done outside class.
The practical consequence is that withholding is a good decision when your record is strong enough to carry the extra weight, and a poor one when the score would have been the thing propping up an uneven transcript. Which is why the question isn't really "is my score good" — it's "does this score help this application at this school." Sometimes the answer differs across your own list, and that's fine.
If you're still deciding whether your score is worth another sitting rather than a submission call, our good SAT score guide works through targets by school tier, and the date guide covers whether you still have room for a retake.
Frequently asked questions
Should I submit my SAT score to a test-optional college?
Submit if you're at or above that school's 25th percentile; withhold if clearly below. It's a per-school decision, so the answer can differ across your list.
Which colleges require the SAT for 2026-27?
Six Ivies (Brown, Harvard, Yale, Cornell, Dartmouth, Penn), MIT, Caltech, Georgetown, UT Austin, and the Florida, Georgia, and Tennessee public systems. Princeton and Columbia follow from 2027–28.
Does not submitting an SAT score hurt your application?
Not directly — it shifts weight onto grades, rigour, and essays. That helps a strong record and exposes a weak one.
Is test-optional the same as test-blind?
No. Test-optional means a submitted score is read. Test-blind means it isn't looked at at all, so sending one is pointless.