If the university requires a score, submit it. If the university is test-optional, submit when your score sits at or above the median of its admitted students, consider it between the 25th percentile and the median if the rest of the file is strong, and withhold below the 25th percentile. For an Indian applicant to a top-30 university the honest position is simpler: treat the SAT or ACT as required, because a CBSE or ISC transcript without a score gives the reader one yardstick fewer, and a good score is the yardstick they most want.
The question is harder than it looks because "test-optional" has meant three different things since 2020, and the list changes every year. The Quora question that started this article, "Is SAT optional for international applicants as well? I didn't do great in my SAT (1350) but I have every other part of the application in a high level. Should I still submit it?" (quora.com, "Is SAT optional for international applicants as well"), has a different answer for each university on the poster's list. The companion worry, "How important is the SAT for international students? Is it okay if I don't take the SAT?", has an answer that changed in 2024 and again in 2026.
Which universities require a score in 2026-27
This is the position from the universities' own admissions pages as of September 2026. Every entry has changed at least once since 2024, so check the page before you build a list around it.
| University | 2026-27 policy | Notes for Indian applicants |
|---|---|---|
| Harvard | Required | SAT or ACT; AP, IB, A-level or national exam results accepted only in exceptional cases such as no test access |
| Yale | Required | SAT or ACT; AP and IB may be added, not substituted |
| Dartmouth | Required | Students at schools outside the US may instead submit three APs, IB scores, three A-levels or a final national exam such as CBSE; predicted national exam scores do not count, so for a Grade 12 applicant this means the Class 10 board result |
| Brown | Required | Since the 2024-25 cycle |
| Cornell | Required | Across the undergraduate colleges; confirm per college |
| Penn | Required | Hardship waiver for students who have not tested; anyone who has tested must report |
| MIT | Required | No exceptions for international applicants; no published cut-off |
| Stanford | Required | Reinstated after one test-optional cycle |
| Caltech | Required | ACT science and writing optional |
| Georgetown | Required | Official score reports |
| Purdue, UT Austin, University of Florida and the Florida public system | Required | Scores also drive automatic merit awards at several |
| Princeton | Test-optional this cycle | Required from 2027-28 |
| Columbia | Test-optional this cycle | Required from 2027-28 |
| Vanderbilt | Test-optional for fall 2027 and 2028 entry | Required from fall 2029 entry |
| Duke, Northwestern, Michigan | Test-optional | Duke and Northwestern state that applicants without scores are not disadvantaged; Michigan is test-optional through fall 2027 |
| University of Chicago | Test-optional, "No Harm" | Scores are considered only where they help, so submit anything you have |
| University of California | Test-blind | Scores are not seen at any campus |
| Most others, including most liberal arts colleges | Test-optional | Some require scores for merit scholarships or specific programs |
Two things to take from the table. The first is direction: every change since 2024 has been towards requiring scores, and Princeton, Columbia and Vanderbilt have already announced the date their own change takes effect. A student in Grade 10 or 11 now should assume the required list will be longer by the time they apply. The second is that Dartmouth's national-exam route, which sounds made for CBSE students, requires a final result, so for a Grade 12 applicant it means the Class 10 board, which few readers will weigh as heavily as an SAT sat in Grade 11. The SAT versus ACT guide has the full policy table with dates and fees.
How test-optional is read for an international applicant
The policy statements are clear and I believe them: at a test-optional university a file without a score is read without one, and Duke and Northwestern say in terms that the applicant is not disadvantaged. What the policy cannot change is what the reader has left to work with.
A reader at a selective office sees perhaps forty files from India in a season, most with board marks in the mid-90s, most with the same five subjects. With a score, the reader can place a 94 from a school they have never heard of beside a 94 from a school that sends ten students a year. Without one, the reader has the transcript, the school profile if the counsellor wrote one, the counsellor's rigour rating and the recommendations. For a student at an IB school or a well-known Delhi or Mumbai school with a two-page profile, that is enough. For a CBSE student at a school with no profile and no history at that university, it is not, and the reader's honest response to a mark they cannot calibrate is caution. The CBSE-to-GPA article explains what the profile has to say to close that gap.
Two other details matter for Indian files. English proficiency is a separate requirement: TOEFL, IELTS or Duolingo unless waived, and a strong SAT Reading and Writing score is one of the common grounds for a waiver. And merit scholarships at several universities that are test-optional for admission still ask for a score, so a family that needs the money should read the scholarship page as well as the admissions page.
Submit or withhold, by tier
The rule is the same everywhere: compare your score with the middle 50 percent range the university publishes for its most recent admitted or enrolled class, and decide by where you sit. The tiers below are working targets for Indian applicants, consistent with what we use in profile reviews.
| Tier | Typical middle 50 (SAT) | Submit | Consider | Withhold |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ivy League, MIT, Stanford, Caltech, Chicago, Duke | 1500 to 1570 | 1520 and above | 1480 to 1510 with a 95-plus transcript and a real academic pillar | Below 1480 where optional; where required, submit and adjust the list |
| Top 20 to 40: Michigan, Carnegie Mellon, NYU, Georgia Tech, Emory, Notre Dame, WashU, Vanderbilt | 1450 to 1540 | 1480 and above | 1430 to 1470, especially outside engineering and computer science | Below 1430 where optional |
| Top 40 to 80 and strong publics: Purdue, Illinois, Wisconsin, Boston University, Northeastern, UMass Amherst | 1350 to 1480 | 1400 and above | 1350 to 1390 | Below 1350 where optional; check scholarship rules |
| Test-optional universities where your score is below the 25th percentile | Varies | Never | Never | Always; a weak score submitted is worse than none |
| Test-blind (University of California) | Not considered | Not possible | Not possible | Not applicable |
Read the ranges as September 2026 estimates that shift every year and differ by program; engineering and computer science at a public university often run 50 to 80 points above the university-wide figure. The published range is on each university's class profile or common data set, and checking it for every university on the list is a one-evening task that belongs in the college list work.
What to do with a 1350
A 1350 is the score the Quora poster had, and it is the score I see most often in September of Grade 12 from a student who prepared for two months in the summer. It is roughly the 90th percentile of all test-takers and below the median at every university in the top 40. What to do with it depends on the list.
- Where the score is required, submit it and reweight the list. A 1350 at Harvard, MIT or Cornell will be read and will be below the range; it does not disqualify the file, but the rest of the application has to be exceptional and the list needs targets and likelies that treat 1350 as a strength. Applying to eight required-score reaches with a 1350 is the single most common way an Indian list fails.
- Where the score is optional and 1350 is below the 25th percentile, withhold. That covers most of the top 30. The reader will not know you sat the test, and a transcript at 95 percent with a strong profile is a better file than the same transcript with a 1350 attached.
- Where 1350 is at or above the median, submit. Many strong public universities and most of the top 60 to 100 have medians at or below 1350, and at several the score earns automatic merit. Arizona State, Penn State, UMass Amherst and similar universities publish score-based awards; a 1350 can be worth ₹8,00,000 to ₹15,00,000 (about $9,500 to $18,000) a year at some of them.
- Retake if a sitting is still open. For 2026-27 early deadlines the 3 October SAT registration has closed, but the 7 November sitting (register by 23 October) lands for regular decision at most universities, and the 5 December sitting (register by 20 November) for January deadlines. Most universities superscore, so a retake that lifts Mathematics from 680 to 740 helps even if Reading and Writing falls. Six weeks of targeted work on the weaker section typically moves a 1350 by 50 to 90 points; our SAT and ACT tutoring starts from the section breakdown, not the total. Switching to the ACT at this point is too late.
- Do not explain the score. The Quora poster wanted to "add some additional information" about the 1350. There is nothing to say that helps; a paragraph on test anxiety or a bad centre reads as an excuse for a number the reader would otherwise never have seen.
A 1350 with a 96 percent transcript, the hardest subjects the school offers, and two years of real work in one field is a competitive file at excellent universities. It is not a competitive file at the ten that require scores, and the honest response is to build the list around where it is competitive, not to hope.
The honest answer
Test-optional was introduced in 2020 as a pandemic measure, and for an Indian applicant it was never the advantage it looked. The universities that have reinstated requirements did so after finding that scores predicted academic performance and helped them identify strong students from unfamiliar schools, and an Indian applicant from a CBSE school is exactly the student that finding describes. A missing score does not get you rejected; it gets your board mark read with less confidence, by a reader who has thirty other files from India with scores attached.
So for the top 30, prepare and sit the test as if it were required, in Grade 11 spring with a retake by October of Grade 12, and decide college by college whether to submit. That is the sequence in the method and it is what the United States destination page assumes. For the rest of the list, the middle-50 rule settles it. And for a student who has the test and a score below the range, the fix is the list, not the essay.
If you are in Grade 12 now
Pull the published middle 50 for every university on your list this week and sort the list into submit, consider and withhold. Register for the 7 November SAT by 23 October if any university in the consider column is one you care about, and put the 5 December sitting in reserve for January deadlines; the deadlines resource has both against the application dates. Check the scholarship pages at every public university on the list for a score requirement. If you are in Grade 11, take the diagnostic this month, plan a first sitting in March or May 2027, and assume that by the time you apply Princeton, Columbia and Vanderbilt will be on the required list and others will have joined them; the Ivy League SAT guide sets the targets for the top of the list.
Where this stops applying
This article is about the US. The UK does not use the SAT or ACT; Singapore and Hong Kong treat a strong score as helpful but not required for students with strong board results; Canada and Australia are optional almost everywhere and rarely decisive. It does not cover English proficiency tests, which are a separate requirement with separate waivers. It does not cover students with documented test-access problems, for whom Harvard, Penn and Dartmouth publish exceptions. And every policy above is the September 2026 position on the universities' own pages; the list has changed every cycle since 2024 and will change again, so confirm each university's page before you decide to withhold.