Yes — all eight Ivy League schools now require the SAT or ACT again. With Columbia’s decision to reinstate standardized testing, the last holdout is gone. If your student’s college list includes any Ivy — or the growing group of selective schools following their lead — “test-optional” no longer applies to that part of the list, and the testing plan belongs back on the family calendar.

What actually changed

Columbia became the final Ivy League school to bring back its testing requirement (taking effect with fall 2027 applicants), after the other seven returned one by one over the past two admissions cycles. In the same stretch, the University of California quietly withdrew its proposal to even study reinstating the SAT — so the UC campuses remain test-free.

That split is the real story. The admissions map is no longer one policy: elite private universities are re-embracing scores while some large public systems stay test-blind. A single family strategy — “we’re skipping the SAT” or “everyone needs a 1550” — no longer fits a mixed list.

Why testing came back

Admissions offices have been increasingly open about the reason: in the age of AI, the polished parts of an application stopped being reliable signals. Essays can be generated. Activity descriptions can be buffed. Scores — whatever their flaws — can’t be outsourced to a chatbot. It’s the same logic behind the wave of schools dropping their supplemental essays altogether: admissions is retreating to what can’t be faked.

Strip away the essays and add back the scores, and the application is hollowing out in the middle. What’s left carrying weight: the transcript, the testing plan, and the activities that show real depth — anything a student can point to, explain, and defend because they actually did it.

How to rebuild the testing plan

1. Map the list, school by school — this year’s policy, not last year’s. Sort every school your student is considering into test-required, test-optional, and test-blind. Policies have flipped year to year; check each admissions page directly rather than relying on older articles.

2. Put test dates on the calendar now. For juniors, that means a first official sitting planned well before senior fall, with room for a retake. Waiting until “sometime senior year” is how students end up taking their only SAT the same month their applications are due.

3. Prep in focused blocks, not marathons. A consistent 3–4 hours a week over a semester beats a panicked bootcamp. Official practice tests under real timing conditions are worth more than any amount of untimed drilling.

4. Don’t let testing crowd out the evidence. A strong score gets a student looked at. What gets them chosen is the part of the application that shows depth — a project, a research question, a competition entry they can genuinely explain. One of our students turned exactly that kind of work into a research mentorship that started with a single cold email.

The bottom line for families

Here’s the part most families miss: whether your student ends up applying to schools that require test scores again or to ones that stay test-blind, the result is the same — a massive pile of applicants with nearly identical transcripts and scores. Demonstrated interest, real and specific, is what actually pulls a student out of that pile. It isn’t optional anymore. It’s the whole game.

Curious whether your student is a good fit for STEAM in AI? We only take a limited number of students into each mentored AI Project cohort, and if it isn’t the right fit, we’ll tell you honestly — before a semester goes by, not after. Every student starts with a complimentary 45-minute AI Project & Fit Assessment: interests, project directions, Build vs. Research pathways, and an honest read on fit.

Book a Free AI Project & Fit Assessment →

Related reading: Cornell just dropped its university-wide essay — here’s what gets students in now · How to get a research mentor in high school