The SAT is Back at the Top Schools: Here’s What Your Family Should do this Month

Six of the eight Ivy League schools require an SAT or ACT score from first-year applicants in the 2026-27 cycle: Harvard, Yale, Penn, Brown, Dartmouth and Cornell. Princeton and Columbia are in their final test-optional year and require scores from 2027-28.

Across the wider Ivy Plus group, nine of twelve institutions have reinstated, including MIT, Stanford and Caltech. Georgetown never adopted a test-optional policy at all, and MIT required testing throughout the pandemic period.

There was no single announcement day. Schools reversed individually across two and a half years, often updating an admissions FAQ rather than issuing news. Families discover the change when they open an application checklist in the autumn, and by then the window to produce a competitive score is tighter than they expected.

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Why the schools say they changed

The reversal was empirical, but the finding was not what most parents assume, and it is worth stating precisely because the popular version has it backwards.

Dartmouth reinstated in February 2024 after faculty analysis found that high school grades paired with test scores were the most reliable predictors of success there, more so than grades or recommendations alone.

The more consequential finding was about who was hurt by test-optional. Dartmouth’s researchers found that lower-income applicants were withholding scores that would have strengthened their applications. The admissions office reads a score against the local norms of the applicant’s own high school, so a 1400 from a school averaging 1000 carries real information. Students judged their scores against Dartmouth’s published median instead, concluded they looked weak, and withheld them. The office never saw the evidence in their favour.

Yale reached a similar conclusion. Its readers found that when no score was present, they leaned harder on the other components of the file, and that shift tended to disadvantage applicants from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.

In other words, the schools did not report that test-optional admits underperformed once enrolled. They reported that test-optional was quietly filtering out talented students from less-resourced schools, which is close to the opposite of the equity outcome the policy was designed to produce.

For families, the practical implication is the same either way. A score is once again a genuine differentiator at these schools, and a missing one is a real gap rather than a neutral choice.

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Why families were caught out

Four factors.

The rollout was piecemeal. No national moment, no coordinated announcement, just individual policy pages updated over two years. Yale is the clearest example. It reinstated in 2024 in test-flexible form, accepting AP or IB results in place of the SAT or ACT, then closed that option in May 2026.

A cohort was told not to bother. Sophomores and juniors during peak test-optional were advised, correctly for the time, that they had more flexibility than earlier classes. Many deprioritised prep accordingly. The advice was accurate for the environment it was given in and is not accurate for the one they are graduating into.

Aid got tighter at the same time. The FAFSA formula no longer discounts for multiple siblings in college simultaneously, federal aid programmes have narrowed, and merit scholarships carry more of the affordability load. Families who skipped prep to save on prep costs often find the same decision closes off merit money worth far more.

The clock differs by grade. Seniors reading this in the autumn have a compressed but usable window. Juniors have a full year and need to plan now rather than in spring. Sophomores can build the strongest position of any group, if prep is treated as part of college planning rather than an add-on.

“I was urged to take this course by my parents, originally I didn’t really want to attend the classes, but learning about the SAT made me realize that I would have been completely unprepared without it,” wrote student Will Keenan.

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The PSAT stakes rose with everything else

The PSAT/NMSQT taken in October of junior year is the only administration that counts toward the National Merit Scholarship Program, and more than 100 colleges offer automatic half-tuition or full-tuition awards to Finalists who enrol.

In an environment where federal aid has narrowed, that makes one Wednesday morning in junior year a financial event rather than a rehearsal. Underpreparation there costs opportunities that do not return.

Arin Tripathy, who took a PSAT course with instructor Kevin Parrish, reported moving from 1350 to 1500.

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What students on compressed timelines report

Focused preparation over a short window produces meaningful gains, and students who prepare intensively across a few months often outperform those who spread the same hours across a year without structure.

Arnav D. took a course with instructor Taylor Trautwein from a low practice baseline. “By the end of this course, I saw a significant improvement in my results. My score went up by 200 pts,” he wrote.

Sofia Solano-Arango took a six-weekend course running Saturdays and Sundays and reported a gain of more than 200 points, which she said put her on track for her college goals.

One student described a predicted-score improvement of nearly 300 points, writing that the course taught more about the SAT than anything previously encountered. Another credited instructor Ronak Shah with steady score improvement and rising confidence.

Nicholas Schroer framed the gain as strategic rather than content-based. “Even if some of the material itself wasn’t new to me, the strategies I learned I actually used on my tests and helped me score better on them,” he wrote.

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What to do by grade

Seniors applying this autumn. Check the exact testing requirement at every school on your list this week, not the policy you remember. If any school requires or recommends scores, register for the next available date. October, November and December dates work for most regular deadlines, though early action and early decision cut earlier. Six weeks of structured prep can still move a score materially. Verify before assuming you can skip submission.

Juniors. The highest-leverage year. Register for the October PSAT/NMSQT and prepare for it seriously, because National Merit qualification unlocks scholarship money at more than 100 institutions. Plan at least two SAT or ACT attempts, one in winter and one in spring. Start structured prep now rather than waiting for a prep season that no longer exists.

Sophomores. Take the spring PSAT 10 as a diagnostic. Put most test-related energy into strong grades, since GPA and scores together are what the reinstated environment rewards. Consider a short PSAT course in the summer before junior year.

Freshmen. Foundations, not test prep. Reading volume, algebra and geometry, analytical writing. These are the underlying skills the tests measure, and freshman year is when they get built. Formal prep is premature and the foundations make junior-year prep far more efficient.

Five principles for the current environment:

• Verify each target school’s policy for your application year before assuming anything.
• Treat the PSAT as a financial instrument, not a practice test.
• Junior year is again the year prep actually has to happen.
• Seniors have less time but workable windows through December.
• Narrower federal aid makes score-linked merit money more valuable, not less.

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The environment changed: the strategy has to

Families who did well during the test-optional years adapted to the environment they were in. Doing well now means adapting again, in the opposite direction.

The evidence behind the reversal is not going away, and the direction of travel points toward more schools following rather than fewer. Princeton and Columbia are already scheduled.

For seniors, time is short but the situation is not lost. Dates through December remain, and compressed prep can still produce a competitive score. For juniors, the assumptions inherited from the test-optional years no longer describe the process ahead.

Verify the policies. Plan real prep. Treat the PSAT and the SAT as the high-leverage instruments they have become again.

Dr. Shaan Patel is a Shark Tank winner, bestselling author, and founder of Prep Expert®, an education company that has helped students improve test scores, win scholarships, and gain admission to top universities. He scored a perfect SAT and is passionate about expanding access to education worldwide.