Test Optional Colleges
There are over 800 colleges and universities in the United States that make admission decisions without using the SAT or ACT. You can find this list at http://fairtest.org/university/optional. Some schools exempt students who meet GPA or class rank criteria, others require SAT or ACT scores only for placement or scholarships, and still others have more “flexible” testing requirement, such as submission of AP, IB, or SAT Subject Test scores in lieu of SAT or ACT scores.
Based on the popular colleges to which our college-counseling students have applied in recent years, I curated the following list of test-optional colleges. It’s important, however, that you double-check a college’s website to learn more about specific admissions requirements.
- Albright
- American
- Arizona State (only when minimum GPA and/or class rank is not met)
- Assumption
- Bard
- Bates
- Bowdoin
- Brandeis (test flexible; see college website)
- Bryant (3 short essays in lieu of scores, if test-optional is chosen)
- Clark
- Colby (test flexible; see college website)
- College of the Holy Cross
- Connecticut College
- Denison
- Depaul
- Dickinson *
- Fairfield
- Franklin & Marshall
- Furman
- Gettysburg *
- Goucher *
- Guilford
- Gustavus Adolphus *
- Hamilton (test flexible; see college website)
- Hampshire
- Hobart & William Smith *
- Ithaca
- Julliard
- Lake Forest *
- Lawrence University*
- Loyola (MD)
- Lynn
- Middlebury (test flexible; see college website)
- Mount Holyoke
- Muhlenberg*
- NYU (test flexible; see college website)
- Pitzer (only when minimum GPA and/or class rank is not met)
- Providence College
- Rollins
- Sacred Heart
- Saint Lawrence
- Sarah Lawrence
- Smith
- Susquehanna
- Trinity College (test flexible; see college website)
- Trinity University
- University of Arizona
- Wake Forest
- Washington & Jefferson
* Test scores are required for merit scholarships
