Penn testing policy at a glance: Yes, Penn requires the SAT or ACT. Announced in February 2025 and effective for students applying for fall 2026 admission onward, the requirement covers every applicant type: first-year, transfer, domestic, international, homeschooled, and QuestBridge. Applicants who have never been able to take a test due to genuine hardship may submit a waiver in the application instead. Families planning a testing timeline around Penn can schedule a consultation to build a complete testing and application strategy.
Source: Penn Admissions, Testing (admissions.upenn.edu/how-to-apply/preparing-your-application/testing).
Does Penn Require the SAT or ACT?
Yes. Penn requires the SAT or ACT from all applicants, and the policy is notably comprehensive: first-year and transfer candidates, domestic and international students, homeschooled applicants, and QuestBridge participants are all covered. Penn states no preference between the two exams, and when a student submits both, the committee pays attention to the higher result. Scores may be self-reported at the time of application, with one exception: recruited athletes must submit official reports through the testing agency or a University-approved source. Penn permits Score Choice but encourages students to share their entire testing history for both exams, both for context and to avoid inaccuracies that verification would later surface.
The waiver is real but narrow. Applicants who have not taken the SAT or ACT and face hardship in doing so, such as a lack of test center availability, financial hardship, natural disaster, or civil unrest, may submit a testing waiver within the application, and once submitted the requirement is automatically waived. The critical caveat: any applicant who has taken a test is required to submit the scores, and if Penn receives reported or self-reported results, those scores supersede the waiver and enter the review. For the SAT, Penn calculates a superscore by combining a student’s highest Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score with the highest Math score across test dates, in either format.
How Has Penn’s Testing Policy Changed?
Penn pivoted to test optional in the 2020-21 cycle when the pandemic closed testing sites, then reassessed the policy annually rather than extending it indefinitely. On February 14, 2025, the university announced the requirement’s return, effective for students applying for fall 2026 admission, making Penn the sixth Ivy to reinstate testing after Dartmouth, Yale, Brown, Harvard, and Cornell. Penn framed the timing deliberately: announcing after the prior cycle’s applications were in gave the high school Class of 2026 a full runway to complete testing. Princeton and Columbia followed with their own announcements in October 2025 and June 2026, completing the Ivy League’s return to required testing.
Penn’s stated rationale was unusually candid about applicant psychology. The admissions office wrote that the flexibility of a test-optional policy had escalated decision-making stress in an already stressful process, and that requiring scores removes the submission-choice dilemma so students can focus on the personal components of the application. The office also emphasized continuity: Penn’s primary academic assessment remains the curriculum a student chose, the grades earned, the writing, and the recommendations, with testing serving as one datapoint inside a comprehensive review. Dean of Admissions Whitney Soule had long described testing as present but separate from that fundamental evaluation, a framing the reinstatement preserved.
| Policy Detail | Penn |
|---|---|
| Requirement status | SAT or ACT required for all applicants: first-year, transfer, international, homeschooled, and QuestBridge |
| In effect since | Fall 2026 admission (announced February 14, 2025) |
| Waiver | Available in-application for students who have never tested due to hardship; any existing scores supersede it |
| Test preference | None; if both exams are submitted, Penn pays attention to the higher score |
| Superscoring | SAT superscored: highest Evidence-Based Reading and Writing plus highest Math across test dates, in either format |
| Reporting | Self-reporting allowed except for recruited athletes; Score Choice permitted, full testing history encouraged |
What SAT and ACT Scores Are Competitive at Penn?
Penn publishes no minimums and reads every score against a student’s school context, but the competitive center is high and self-selection during the optional years pushed it higher. Recently published ranges for admitted students have clustered in the low to mid 1500s on the SAT, with ACT composites in the mid 30s. Our working guidance for Ivy-Plus applicants is to treat roughly 1500 to 1530 as a competitive entry point and 1570 or above as positioning above the median admitted student. Penn’s SAT superscore policy rewards planned retakes, since the committee combines the highest Evidence-Based Reading and Writing result with the highest Math result across sittings, and submitting both exams lets Penn lean on whichever is stronger.
How Should You Plan Testing for Penn?
Penn publishes the final eligible test month for each admission round on its testing page, and for Early Decision that means SAT sittings as late as November can still count. Cutting it that close leaves no margin, so the comfortable arc remains a first official sitting in spring of junior year, targeted summer preparation, and a fall retake well before the November 1 Early Decision deadline or the early January Regular Decision deadline. Self-reporting keeps costs down at the application stage, though recruited athletes should order official reports from the start. Students weighing a waiver should remember the trigger: it exists only for those who have never tested, and any existing score must be submitted.
For the picture across every top school, see our full guide to which colleges require the SAT and ACT. From there, How to Get Into Penn’s Huntsman Program (International Studies and Business), How to Get Into Penn’s LSM Program (Vagelos Life Sciences and Management), and SAT and ACT Prep Timeline: 9th Through 12th Grade Roadmap for Elite Admissions can help you put testing inside a complete Penn application strategy.
What Does This Policy Mean for Your Application Strategy?
Strategically, Penn’s policy removes ambiguity while adding a small tactical wrinkle worth exploiting. Because Penn looks at the higher of the two exams and superscores the SAT across dates, a student who diagnostics well on both tests can build a plan around whichever ceiling is higher, then retake sections of the SAT knowing only the best components count. The comprehensive reach of the requirement means transfer applicants and international students cannot plan around an exemption that does not exist. And since Penn insists the transcript remains the primary academic assessment, the score belongs on top of the most rigorous curriculum available, not in place of it.
Frequently Asked Questions About Penn’s Testing Policy
No. Penn reinstated its standardized testing requirement in February 2025, effective for students applying for fall 2026 admission, and it remains in force. Every applicant must submit SAT or ACT scores or, if they have never been able to test, a hardship waiver.
Only applicants who have not taken the SAT or ACT and face hardship such as no available test center, financial hardship, natural disaster, or civil unrest. The waiver is automatic once submitted, but any existing scores Penn receives supersede it.
Yes. Penn’s requirement explicitly covers first-year, transfer, domestic, international, homeschooled, and QuestBridge applicants, so no applicant category should plan around an exemption.
Yes. Penn combines a student’s highest Evidence-Based Reading and Writing score with the highest Math score across test dates, in either format, which makes well-planned retakes a low-risk way to raise the evaluated result.
Neither. Penn states no preference, and when a student submits both exams the committee pays attention to the higher score, so ambitious students can take a diagnostic of each and build around the stronger ceiling.
Yes, with one exception: recruited athletes must submit official scores through the testing agency or a University-approved source. Everyone else may self-report at the application stage, with verification for enrolling students.
Penn sets no minimum, but recently published ranges for admitted students cluster in the low to mid 1500s. We suggest treating roughly 1500 to 1530 as a competitive entry point and 1570 or above as above-median positioning within Penn’s holistic review.
Penn lists the final eligible test month for each round on its testing page, and SAT sittings as late as November can count for Early Decision. Testing that late leaves no retake margin, so treat it as a backstop rather than a plan.
Sources: Penn Admissions, College Board SAT Suite, ACT, NCES College Navigator, College Scorecard.
Testing also matters after early decisions: if you are deferred, a stronger winter score is one of the cleanest updates you can send. See our guide to being deferred from Penn.
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