SAT/ACT Submission Strategy: The School-by-School Guide That Actually Makes Sense
"Should I submit my score?" is the most critical SAT and ACT question that doesn't appear on the exam
I'm Nick Mosca, a former admissions officer with 25+ years of experience, and I've developed a proprietary, school-by-school formula for exactly this decision. The data behind it is more nuanced than anything you'll find on Reddit or your school counselor's well-meaning-but-occasionally-outdated handout.
Here's a question most students get completely wrong: "Should I submit my SAT or ACT score?" The answer isn't yes or no. The answer is it depends on the school — and knowing exactly how it depends is where the real game is played.
Here's the current reality, and it's more nuanced than most students realize: most four-year schools remain test-optional, but a growing number of the most selective schools have reinstated mandatory testing over the past two years. "Test-optional" doesn't mean "test-irrelevant" — and confusing the two might be the most expensive mistake you make this application season. My method is built to navigate both worlds at once: knowing which schools on your list still let you choose, and which no longer do. Over at nickmosca.com, I break down the full methodology; this guide is where the statistical backbone lives. Students who follow this framework have earned over $16 million in merit-based aid, averaging more than $80,000 per student. Independent merit scholarships layer on top of that. But first, let's talk strategy. Ready to find out where your score actually stands? Book a free strategy call.
The Test-Optional Landscape: More Schools, More Confusion
Test-optional feels like it was invented specifically to confuse people. And in fairness to confused people everywhere, it is confusing — because it means something different at almost every school. According to FairTest (the National Center for Fair and Open Testing, which maintains the most comprehensive institutional tracking database on this topic), more than 2,000 accredited four-year colleges and universities — over 90% of ranked U.S. four-year institutions — do not require ACT or SAT scores for admission. FairTest distinguishes between temporary pandemic-era policies and permanent shifts, a distinction most news coverage ignores. Here's what most students miss, though: the schools making headlines right now aren't the ones staying test-optional. They're the ones reinstating testing. Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, MIT, Caltech, Cornell, and a growing list of highly selective institutions have all gone back to requiring scores over the past two admissions cycles. So the honest picture is this: the majority of four-year schools remain test-optional, but the most selective ones increasingly aren't. Which brings us to the real question: if most schools are still test-optional, how do you decide whether to submit? The short answer, from NACAC's Factors in Admission Decisions page, is nuanced. Test score importance has genuinely collapsed — NACAC's own data shows only about 5% of colleges now call test scores "considerably important," down from roughly 50% before the pandemic. That's a real decline, not a talking point. But "declined in importance" isn't the same as "irrelevant," and the schools where scores still carry weight tend to be exactly the selective ones now requiring them outright. Curious which of your target schools have reinstated testing? Book a free strategy call.
The Middle 50% Rule: Your North Star for the Submission Decision
Every Common Data Set — a publicly filed institutional report submitted annually by most colleges — includes the "middle 50%" score range: the 25th and 75th percentile SAT/ACT scores of students who actually enrolled (not just got in — enrolled). This data is legal, public, and massively underutilized by families. Yale is the clearest illustration of why this matters, precisely because of what just happened there. Yale's own news release confirms that even during its most flexible testing years, 90–92% of each entering class included a score anyway. Yale has since fully reinstated a mandatory testing requirement, dropping even the alternative of substituting AP or IB scores. That tells you exactly how much the school valued scores all along, even while officially calling itself "optional" or "flexible." Want help figuring out where Yale-style logic applies to your list? Book a free strategy call. For a currently test-optional example, look at Columbia — though even that comes with an asterisk now. Columbia remains test-optional only through the 2026-2027 cycle; it has already announced it will require scores starting with the 2027-2028 cycle, making it the last Ivy to hold out. When a still-test-optional school like Columbia publishes high voluntary submission rates in its own data, the implied message is the same one Yale eventually made explicit: not submitting is a strategic disadvantage unless the rest of your application is exceptional in every other dimension. The framework I use is straightforward: if your score falls above the 75th percentile for a school's enrolled class, submit it — it's a genuine asset. If it falls between the 25th and 75th, submit with context and let the rest of your application carry weight. If it's below the 25th percentile, seriously consider not submitting. You're not hiding anything. You're just not making a single data point the centerpiece of an application that's better served by your other strengths. To look up any school's middle 50%, go directly to that school's Office of Institutional Research page and search for their most recent Common Data Set. Every school has an equivalent page. Section C9 is where test score data lives. Want me to run this analysis for your specific list? Book a free strategy call. 
Superscoring: The Rule That Changes the Entire Equation
Superscoring is the practice of combining your highest section scores across multiple test sittings into a single composite. It sounds like a gift. It is — but only if you know which schools do it for which test, because the honest picture is more school-specific than most guides admit. Here's a correction to older advice you may have seen: it is not true that the SAT is broadly superscored by more schools than the ACT. Most highly selective schools superscore both. The real strategic risk is school-specific exceptions in either direction — Carnegie Mellon superscores the SAT but not the ACT, for instance, while Harvard and Princeton don't superscore either test at all. There's also a new wrinkle worth knowing: as of 2025, the ACT's own Superscore Composite no longer includes the Science section — it's now built from English, Math, and Reading only. One more relevant data point: the ACT's own recent graduating-class data shows that among students who tested multiple times, those who superscored improved their composite by an average of 2.4 points. That's a meaningful gain — worth knowing when you're deciding whether a retake is worth the time. The practical implication: before deciding which score to submit (or whether to retake), check that specific school's official superscoring policy directly on their admissions website. The College Board's Score Use Practices database is a useful starting point — not a blog post, not a Reddit thread. Not sure if your target schools superscore the test you're stronger on? Book a free strategy call.
Test-Blind vs. Test-Optional: Not the Same Thing
This is the confusion that makes me want to gently flip a table. Test-optional means you can choose whether to submit scores. Test-blind means the school will not look at your score even if you send it. These are not synonyms. Confusing them can cost you. According to FairTest's institutional tracking database roughly 85 U.S. colleges maintain fully test-blind policies — including the entire University of California and California State University systems, both permanently test-free following board decisions in the early 2020s, plus a handful of selective liberal arts colleges. For the rest of the 2,000+ test-optional schools, the submission decision is very much in play. The University of California's shift to test-blind was informed by a major institutional research effort: the UC Academic Senate Standardized Testing Task Force Report, a lengthy analysis that examined the predictive value of SAT/ACT scores at UC. The report found — among many nuanced conclusions — that factors including A-G course completion and grades played a larger role in underrepresentation than test scores themselves, and that tests did have predictive value for student success, particularly for students from underrepresented backgrounds. Understanding why certain schools went test-blind versus test-optional gives you better intuition for how those schools now read applications. Not sure which category your target schools fall into? Book a free strategy call.
What Holistic Review Actually Means (A Data-First Translation)
"Holistic review" sounds inclusive and warm. What it means in practice: admissions offices look at everything and weight it according to formulas they are not required to publish. That's not cynicism — that's the reality of selective admissions. But NACAC's Factors in Admission Decisions page gives us the clearest public hierarchy we have. According to NACAC's most recent survey data, grades in college-prep courses were rated as having "considerable importance" by roughly three-quarters of admissions officers, with strength of curriculum close behind. Standardized test scores, by contrast, have collapsed to just about 5% "considerable importance" — down from roughly 50% before the pandemic. This isn't a minor decline; it's one of the most dramatic shifts in the survey's history. The actual hierarchy you should be optimizing around is grades and curriculum strength first, by a wide margin, with everything else — including test scores for most schools — well behind. ACT vs. SAT: It's About Fit, Not Which Test Is "Better "Students spend enormous energy asking which test is easier or better. Wrong question. The right question is: which test structure better fits how you process information under timed pressure? Roughly 1.4 million high school seniors take the ACT each year, and over 2 million take the SAT at least once. These volume differences matter because they affect how admissions offices calibrate their norms and how familiar readers are with each scoring scale. Trying to decide between the SAT and ACT for your specific profile? Book a free strategy call. One structural update that consistently surprises families: the ACT has been redesigned. The core exam is now just English, Math, and Reading, bringing total testing time down to about 2 hours and 5 minutes. The Science section — which never actually tested science knowledge so much as data interpretation and reasoning — is now entirely optional, as is the Essay. Students can also choose between a digital or traditional paper format. If you took an older practice test that included a mandatory Science section, that's now outdated information. The practical recommendation: take one full official practice test of each under timed conditions, then compare your results using the official ACT/SAT concordance tables published jointly by College Board and ACT. These are the only official concordance tables and should be the single reference for comparing scores across the two tests. Don't compare raw scores casually — a 30 on the ACT and a 1400 on the SAT are not automatically treated as identical at every school, even when a concordance table maps them closely. 
Quick ACT-to-SAT Concordance Reference
Source: College Board and ACT, Guide to the ACT/SAT Concordance. Direct download: collegereadiness.collegeboard.org/pdf/guide-2018-act-sat-concordance.pdf (link preserved exactly as originally provided)
Want help deciding which test plays to your strengths? Book a free strategy call.
A Taxonomy of How Schools Actually Use Scores
Not all test-optional schools are created equal. In practice, they fall into four categories: Category 1: Score-Significant — Submit If Above 75th Percentile At highly selective schools (acceptance rates under 15–20%), test scores carry meaningful weight and submitting strong ones — above that school's 75th percentile — provides a measurable advantage. A narrow middle 50% range at a school like this tells you the admitted class is highly homogeneous on this metric, which means not submitting is a visible absence, not a neutral choice. Category 2: Score-Neutral With a Submission Bonus At mid-tier liberal arts colleges and regional universities, not submitting generally carries little admissions penalty — but submitting scores above the 75th percentile can still help, particularly for merit aid consideration. This is the category where strong scores become a financial strategy even when they aren't strictly an admissions strategy. Wondering which category your test-optional schools actually fall into? Book a free strategy call. Category 3: Test-Blind — Submission Literally Doesn't Matter For the roughly 85 test-blind institutions documented by FairTest, the submission question is moot for admissions. But don't confuse test-blind admissions with test-blind scholarship consideration. Many merit programs — both institutional and independent — still require or prefer scores even when the school's admissions process doesn't use them. Category 4: Test-Optional for Admission, Score-Required for Merit Aid This is the trap category. A significant share of colleges that identify as test-optional for admissions still factor scores into merit scholarship eligibility. Students assume test-optional means they're done with the testing conversation — then wonder why their award letters are thin. Before committing to non-submission at any school, check the school's merit scholarship criteria explicitly. This is a separate question from the admissions policy. What Common App Data Tells Us About Submission Trends The Common App's most recent End of Season Report tracks application trends across its full member network. Growth in applicants reporting test scores was slower than growth in non-reporters for a couple of consecutive cycles. That trend has now reversed. Score reporters outpaced non-reporters in growth rate for the first time since 2021. The Common App data also consistently shows that first-generation students, students from lower-income communities, and underrepresented minority students are more likely to apply without submitting test scores. This has real implications for how advisors should frame the test-optional decision for these populations: a strong score can function as an equity signal — a demonstrated ability that the application might not otherwise communicate through resource-limited contexts. Want a second opinion on your own score-reporting strategy? Book a free strategy call. 
Independent Merit Scholarships: The Parallel Strategy You Shouldn't Skip
Beyond institutional merit aid, there's an entire ecosystem of independent merit scholarship programs that are routinely missed because they require proactive research and separate applications. These don't care what test policy your target school has — they run on their own criteria, and many still use test scores as a primary evaluation factor. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation qualifies students based on PSAT/NMSQT performance — not the ACT. The base award ($2,500) significantly understates the program's value: many colleges offer additional institutional matching scholarships for National Merit finalists and semifinalists, sometimes substantially more than the base award on top. Other independent programs worth researching:
Five Questions to Run for Every School on Your ListBefore deciding whether to submit scores anywhere, work through this checklist school by school:
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I submit my SAT/ACT scores to a test-optional school? It depends on where your score falls relative to that specific school's middle 50% range. Above the 75th percentile, submit — it's an asset. Below the 25th percentile, it's usually safer not to. In between, let the rest of your application carry the weight. What's the difference between test-optional and test-blind? Test-optional means you choose whether to submit scores, and the school will consider them if you do. Test-blind means the school won't look at your scores for admissions purposes even if you submit them — though test-blind schools may still use scores for scholarships, placement, or advising. Do test scores matter for merit scholarships even at test-optional schools? Often, yes. A meaningful number of colleges that don't require scores for admission still factor them into merit scholarship eligibility. Always check a school's scholarship criteria separately from its general admissions policy. Not sure if your specific scholarship criteria require a score? Book a free strategy call. Does submitting a low test score hurt my chances more than not submitting at all? Generally, yes, if the score sits well below a school's typical range. Test-optional schools won't penalize you for withholding a score, but a weak score you do submit becomes a data point working against you rather than for you. Which colleges still require SAT or ACT scores? A growing list of highly selective schools — including MIT, Georgetown, Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Caltech, and Cornell — have reinstated mandatory testing over the past few admissions cycles, and Columbia has announced it will join them starting with the 2027-2028 cycle. Always verify each school's current policy directly, since this list keeps changing. [A note on methodology: these questions were identified via live organic web search rather than a verified Google "People Also Ask" box scrape, so they're a close approximation rather than a guaranteed 1:1 match with the current SERP.] Still unsure whether to submit at a specific school? Book a free strategy call. The Bottom Line: Data-Driven Submission Beats Gut Feel, Every Time The students who get this wrong treat it as a feelings question: "I'm not happy with my score, so I won't send it." The students who get it right treat it as a data question: "My score is at the 68th percentile for this school's enrolled class, they superscore this test, and the CDS shows a high submission rate among admits — so I'm submitting." The formula isn't magic. It's applied statistics and school-by-school research, whether the student is in 9th grade just starting to plan or a senior finalizing their list. And the students who've collectively earned over $16 million in merit-based scholarships through this approach are the evidence that data-driven strategy consistently outperforms guesswork. (Outcomes vary by student; past results don't guarantee future awards.) Ready to find out exactly where your scores stand, school by school? Book your free strategy call now — spots fill up fast during application season.
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