The phrase does a lot of work in headlines and very little in an application. Both halves of the answer are true at the same time, and which half applies to you is decided by your list.
By PrepScore · Checked against sources on · 3 sourced facts · Editorial standards
For the most selective universities, effectively yes: all eight Ivy League schools have now announced requirements, six of them already in force for the 2026-27 cycle. For everyone else, no — more than 90% of ranked four-year colleges remain test-optional for the 2026 admissions cycle. Whether test-optional is "over" depends entirely on which colleges are on your list.
| If your list is… | Then test-optional is… |
|---|---|
| Ivy League, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, Johns Hopkins | Over, or ending within one cycle |
| Florida, Georgia or Tennessee public universities | Over |
| Most other ranked four-year colleges | Unchanged for 2026 |
The reason both halves are true at once is that the reversals are concentrated. A small number of universities admit a small share of applicants, and those are the ones that moved. The distribution of colleges did not change; the distribution of headlines did.
All eight have announced a return to requiring the SAT or ACT. Columbia, in June 2026, was the last.
More than 90% remain test-optional for the 2026 admissions cycle.
Require scores.
Princeton's announcement followed a review of five years of test-optional data, which found that students who had submitted scores went on to perform better academically than those who had not. Columbia's faculty review reached a similar conclusion. The consistent finding across these reviews is not that tests measure everything, but that removing them removed information admissions offices were using.
The phrase describes what an admissions office does with an absence, not what it does with a score. Three policies get flattened into one word, and they behave differently:
| Policy | If you submit | If you do not |
|---|---|---|
| Test-required | Read as part of the file | The application is incomplete |
| Test-optional | Read as part of the file | No penalty; the rest of the file carries more weight |
| Test-blind | Not read at all | No difference |
Test-blind is rare and shrinking. Almost everything described as "test-optional" will still read a score you send — which is why the decision to submit is a judgement about your score, not about the policy.
The numbers to compare against: average SAT score, the SAT score chart, and average ACT score.
Full-length adaptive practice, every answer explained.
No. The reversals are concentrated among the most selective universities and some state systems. More than 90% of ranked four-year colleges remain test-optional for the 2026 cycle.
The published reviews — Princeton's five-year study among them — found that applicants who submitted scores performed better academically than those who did not, which made the score useful information the office had stopped receiving.
No — that is test-blind, which is rare. Test-optional means there is no penalty for not submitting; a strong score submitted is still read.
Then Columbia and Princeton also require a score, along with the six Ivies that already do.
Policies change between cycles and sometimes within one. For anything you are relying on, the issuing body’s own page is the authority — every source above links to it.