Notre Dame testing policy at a glance: No, Notre Dame does not currently require the SAT or ACT. The university is test optional for all applicants through the 2026-27 school year, covering first-year and transfer candidates alike. The important nuance sits in Notre Dame’s own words: significant quantitative evidence is typically demonstrated by its strongest applicants, and students are encouraged to submit scores if available. Families planning a testing timeline around Notre Dame can schedule a consultation to build a complete testing and application strategy.
Source: Notre Dame Undergraduate Admissions, Evaluation Criteria (admissions.nd.edu/apply/evaluation-criteria).
Does Notre Dame Require the SAT or ACT?
No. Notre Dame is test optional through at least the 2026-27 school year, and the policy applies to both first-year and transfer applicants. Students who cannot submit scores, or prefer not to, receive full consideration in the review, and admissions officers will not advise families on whether a particular score should be submitted; the decision belongs entirely to the applicant. What Notre Dame will consider is broad: students may self-report SAT and ACT results on the application or through the applicant status portal, and they may also submit AP scores, predicted or final IB results, or AICE exam scores to demonstrate academic strength when the traditional tests are absent.
Notre Dame’s framing rewards careful reading. The university states that it considers a number of academic factors demonstrating quantitative evidence, and that significant quantitative evidence is typically demonstrated by its strongest applicants, a sentence that quietly tells families how the committee thinks about files that arrive without numbers. On mechanics, Notre Dame treats the digital and paper versions of each exam equally and superscores when applicable, so the highest section results across sittings form the profile the committee reads. Admitted students who enroll must submit official SAT or ACT scores, if taken, by the end of June, which makes accuracy in self-reporting a matter of consequence rather than convenience.
How Has Notre Dame’s Testing Policy Changed?
Notre Dame adopted test-optional admissions in 2020 with the rest of the country and has extended the policy in measured, dated increments rather than indefinitely, with the current commitment running through the 2026-27 school year. That horizon language matters: unlike Amherst or Pomona, which made optional testing permanent, and unlike Harvard or Georgetown, which restored requirements, Notre Dame has deliberately kept its options open cycle by cycle. Families of younger students should treat the policy as guaranteed only through the stated year and watch for the university’s announcement about 2027-28, particularly as Princeton and Columbia complete their returns to required testing that same cycle.
The landscape around Notre Dame sharpens the decision. With Harvard, Yale, Stanford, MIT, Caltech, and six of the eight Ivies now requiring scores, and Princeton and Columbia following for fall 2028 entry, Notre Dame stands with Duke, Vanderbilt, and a shrinking set of elite programs where the choice remains real. The submission math mirrors those peers: across selective test-optional schools, roughly 80 to 85 percent of applicants now submit scores, and Notre Dame’s encouragement language plus its quantitative-evidence framing suggest a committee that welcomes numbers when they exist. Optional at Notre Dame is genuine, but it has never read as indifference to testing.
| Policy Detail | Notre Dame |
|---|---|
| Requirement status | Test optional through the 2026-27 school year for first-year and transfer applicants |
| Encouragement | Scores encouraged if available; strongest applicants typically show significant quantitative evidence |
| Accepted evidence | SAT, ACT, AP scores, predicted or final IB results, and AICE exams may all be self-reported |
| Superscoring | Yes; digital and paper versions viewed equally and superscored when applicable |
| Enrollment rule | Admitted students who enroll must send official SAT or ACT scores, if taken, by the end of June |
| Deadlines | Restrictive Early Action November 1; Regular Decision January 1 |
What SAT and ACT Scores Are Competitive at Notre Dame?
For families deciding whether to submit, the calculus at Notre Dame follows the pattern of its optional-era peers. Admitted submitters in recent cycles have clustered in the low 1500s on the SAT and the mid 30s on the ACT, so a score inside or above that band is a straightforward asset. Notre Dame’s own language raises the bar for omission: when the university says its strongest applicants typically demonstrate significant quantitative evidence, a file without scores needs that evidence elsewhere, through AP and IB results, exceptional performance in the most rigorous curriculum available, or demonstrated strength in quantitative coursework. Our working guidance is to submit anything from roughly 1480 upward and to fill the gap deliberately when withholding.
How Should You Plan Testing for Notre Dame?
Notre Dame’s Restrictive Early Action deadline falls November 1 and Regular Decision January 1, so the comfortable arc remains a first official sitting in spring of junior year and a fall retake, finishing by October for early applicants and December for regular. Because Notre Dame superscores and treats formats equally, additional sittings carry no downside for a prepared student, and self-reporting through the portal keeps costs at zero until enrollment. Students leaning on the optional route should assemble their quantitative evidence early: AP exams from junior year, predicted IB marks requested in the fall, and a transcript that shows the hardest available math sequence, since those pieces substitute for what the missing score would have said.
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 Notre Dame Mendoza, Notre Dame Supplemental Essays Strategy: Prompts, Approach, and Strategy for 2025-2026, and SAT and ACT Prep Timeline: 9th Through 12th Grade Roadmap for Elite Admissions can help you put testing inside a complete Notre Dame application strategy.
What Does This Policy Mean for Your Application Strategy?
Strategically, Notre Dame belongs to the same playbook as Duke: test as though scores were required, then decide with a real number in hand. The reasons stack. Nearly every Notre Dame peer now requires testing, so the preparation is needed anyway; the university’s encouragement language and quantitative-evidence framing tilt the field toward submitters; and the policy’s dated horizon means younger siblings and current sophomores may face a requirement outright. Families should also read the transfer inclusion generously, since Notre Dame extends the optional choice to transfer applicants, a flexibility that neither Yale nor Stanford offers. The score built for the rest of the list will usually belong in the Notre Dame file too, and a student targeting Notre Dame’s most quantitative programs should assume the committee wants to see the math either on a score report or unmistakably on the transcript.
Frequently Asked Questions About Notre Dame’s Testing Policy
Yes. Notre Dame is test optional through the 2026-27 school year for both first-year and transfer applicants, and students who apply without scores receive full consideration.
Notre Dame says the choice is entirely the applicant’s, but it encourages submission when scores are available and notes that its strongest applicants typically demonstrate significant quantitative evidence, which tilts the practical field toward submitters.
Yes. Notre Dame treats the digital and paper versions of each exam equally and superscores when applicable, considering the highest section results across sittings.
They can help. Students may self-report AP scores, predicted or final IB results, or AICE exams to demonstrate academic strength, which matters most for applicants choosing the optional route.
Admitted submitters cluster in the low 1500s, so we suggest submitting anything from roughly 1480 upward and treating the mid 1500s as above-median positioning within Notre Dame’s holistic review.
No. The test-optional policy explicitly covers transfer applicants through the 2026-27 school year, a flexibility many elite peers no longer offer.
The current commitment runs through 2026-27, and Notre Dame has extended in dated increments rather than permanently. Families of current sophomores and younger students should watch for the university’s announcement about future cycles.
Only after enrollment: admitted students who choose Notre Dame must submit official SAT or ACT scores, if they took the exams, by the end of June, which makes accurate self-reporting essential.
Sources: University of Notre Dame Admissions, College Board SAT Suite, ACT, NCES College Navigator, College Scorecard.
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