Test-Optional This Cycle: Submit Scores or Not?

May 18, 2026 · #US college admissions , #Test-Optional , #SAT , #policy analysis

Where Test-Optional Actually Stands

Test-Optional is no longer a pandemic-era stopgap.

Heading into this admissions cycle:

• MIT, Georgetown, CalTech have restored test-required (SAT or ACT mandatory).
• Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Cornell, UPenn require scores for at least some majors.
• Harvard, Princeton remain test-optional, but the implicit preference is now obvious.
• UC system stays Test-Blind (mailed scores literally not viewed).
• Cal State stays Test-Blind.

In short: half the Ivy League is back to test-required. The other half says ‘optional’ but reads scores when you submit them.

Does Not Submitting Hurt You?

The official line is always ‘not submitting won’t affect admission.’ But the data tells a different story. Recent admissions data from Yale, Brown, and Dartmouth shows submission rates significantly higher among admitted students than denied ones.

That doesn’t mean ‘no score = no shot.’ It means the submitter pool skews stronger overall. If your kid’s score sits above the school’s 50th percentile, submitting helps. If it falls below the 25th percentile, holding it back is safer.

A Three-Tier Decision Framework

Tier A · Must submit

• Score is already at or above the target school’s 75th percentile (UPenn 75th = 1560, so submit a 1540+).
• Applying to STEM, business, or CS (admissions assumes strong quant ability by default).
• From a Chinese public high school (GPA legibility is low — scores are the only hard currency).

Tier B · Depends

• Score is between the school’s 50th and 75th percentile.
• Applying to humanities, arts, or social sciences.
• From a US boarding school or top international division with 4.0 GPA / IB 42+.

For this tier, look at the rest of the application. If ECs are elite and essays land, you can hold scores back to avoid dragging the file down. If ECs are middle-of-the-road, submit.

Tier C · Don’t submit

• Score below the target school’s 25th percentile (1380 SAT for UCLA — don’t).
• Test-Blind schools (UC and CSU systems) — submission is wasted; they don’t look.

Schools That Have Returned to Test-Required — Don’t Mix These Up

As of this cycle, confirmed test-required schools (no score = no admission):

• MIT
• Georgetown
• CalTech
• Yale (reinstated this cycle)
• Dartmouth (reinstated this cycle)
• Brown (reinstated this cycle)
• Cornell College of Engineering and CALS
• UPenn (selected business majors)

The remaining Ivies and most Top 30 privates stay test-optional, but score-watching off the record is something admissions officers will admit to in private.

Should California Kids Bother With SAT?

A common question from California parents: UC is Test-Blind, so does the kid even need to take SAT?

Still yes. Reasons:

1. California kids also apply outside UC. Most Common App privates still read scores — locking the strategy to UC is risky.
2. Strong SAT scores unlock merit scholarships at private schools.
3. SAT is a low-cost ‘translator’ — international division and public-high-school GPAs trigger admissions skepticism, and test scores are the fastest way to defuse it.

Skipping the SAT entirely caps the realistic application radius to UC plus CSU, killing most private safety options.

How to Set Your Own Strategy

Strategy isn’t a coin flip. First, map where your kid’s score sits in each target school’s percentile range — then reverse-engineer the submit-or-not decision.

• Not sure where the score lands? Pull each target school’s 25th–75th percentile, then compare to your kid’s most recent practice superscore.
• Not sure which schools should even be the targets? That’s a deeper question. Use PeiPaoLab’s free positioning quiz to find the tier that actually fits, then decide which schools to chase — and whether to submit scores at each.