UC Berkeley testing policy at a glance: No, and Berkeley will not consider them at all. Under the University of California’s test-free policy, SAT and ACT scores play no role in admissions decisions or scholarships, even when submitted, serving only eligibility verification and course placement after enrollment. The twist unique to Berkeley: its own faculty now sit at the center of the systemwide push to bring standardized testing back. Families planning a testing timeline around UC Berkeley can schedule a consultation to build a complete testing and application strategy.
Source: University of California Admissions, First-Year Requirements (admission.universityofcalifornia.edu/counselors/preparing-freshman-students/freshman-requirements.html).
Does UC Berkeley Require the SAT or ACT?
No, and the rule runs deeper than optional. UC Berkeley operates under the University of California’s test-free policy: SAT and ACT scores are not considered in admissions decisions or scholarship awards, even when a student submits them. Scores serve two narrow functions only, fulfilling the UC system’s minimum eligibility requirements when a transcript leaves a gap and placing enrolled students into the right course sequences, with December of senior year the last useful test date for either purpose. The application mechanics keep the wall intact: scores can be self-reported only after submission, by logging back into the completed application, so no Berkeley reader sees a number during selection.
What Berkeley reads instead follows the UC frame with campus inflections. Eligibility runs through the A-G curriculum, fifteen yearlong courses with a 3.0 GPA for Californians and 3.4 for nonresidents, while admitted students typically carry 45 to 53 semester A-G courses, and Berkeley’s holistic review weighs rigor within a student’s context, the four Personal Insight Questions, activities, and sustained achievement. Two Berkeley particulars stand out: the campus, uniquely in the UC system, invites a subset of applicants to submit letters of recommendation as part of an augmented review, and its most subscribed colleges, engineering and computer science above all, read the math transcript with an intensity that makes calculus-level rigor effectively load-bearing. AP and IB exams remain the external evidence that still speaks.
How Has UC Berkeley’s Testing Policy Changed?
Berkeley shares the system’s history: the unanimous May 2020 Regents phase-out vote, the abandoned UC-designed replacement exam, the November 2021 decision to stay test blind for the foreseeable future, and the 2021 settlement that cemented no-consideration of scores through spring 2025. What distinguishes Berkeley is what happened when that settlement expired. The May 2026 faculty letter urging the return of standardized math testing was organized in part from Berkeley’s own mathematics department, and the campus’s internal data became the argument: over three years of diagnostics, at least 20 percent of Berkeley’s first-semester calculus students showed math deficits, evidence the letter framed as basic fluency becoming structurally unattainable to teach around.
The systemwide machinery is now genuinely in motion. The Academic Senate’s admissions board began reevaluating testing in late 2024, a UC San Diego work group documented a roughly thirtyfold rise between 2020 and 2025 in entering students testing below high school level in math, the board’s March 2026 minutes floated Smarter Balanced requirements for California residents and SAT or ACT scores for nonresidents, and a systemwide roadmap was due by the end of June 2026. Federal compliance reviews opened at three UC campuses, Berkeley among them, add outside pressure. For the current cycle nothing has changed and applications remain score-free, but Berkeley is the campus where the policy’s future is being argued most loudly, from the inside.
| Policy Detail | UC Berkeley |
|---|---|
| Requirement status | Test-free: SAT and ACT scores are not considered in admissions or scholarship decisions, even if submitted |
| Permitted score uses | UC minimum eligibility fulfillment and course placement after enrollment; test by December of senior year for these |
| Score reporting | Self-report only after submitting the application; provide officials on admission if scores are used |
| What carries the file | A-G rigor and grades in context, four Personal Insight Questions, activities; Berkeley may invite letters of recommendation through augmented review |
| External exams that still count | AP, IB, and A-Level results as evidence of subject mastery; English proficiency exams for non-English secondary systems |
| Policy status | Berkeley faculty helped organize the May 2026 letter urging testing’s return; systemwide review floated SAT or ACT for nonresidents, with no change adopted yet |
What SAT and ACT Scores Are Competitive at UC Berkeley?
Should a Berkeley-bound student still test? For most families, yes, with reasons layered by geography. Every ambitious list pairs Berkeley with schools that require or reward scores, so the preparation is rarely wasted, and within the UC frame a banked score can still cover an eligibility gap and set post-enrollment placement, sparing a strong student a semester of review math. The Berkeley-specific reason is the loudest: with the campus’s own faculty leading the reinstatement push and the admissions board sketching nonresident testing requirements, younger students, and out-of-state students especially, face real odds the rules change mid-stream. A junior-year score in the bank costs a few Saturdays; discovering a new requirement as a senior costs options.
How Should You Plan Testing for UC Berkeley?
Berkeley’s calendar is the UC system’s single-window design: one application for all nine campuses, opening in August and closing at the end of November, no early round, no interviews, and decisions in late March. That compresses the persuasion into the four Personal Insight Questions and the activities record, which deserve the drafting time an elite private supplement would get, and it moves the real preparation into the transcript years, since A-G rigor through junior year is fixed before the application opens. Students invited into Berkeley’s augmented review should treat the letter request as the opportunity it is and choose recommenders who know their academic work closely. Scores for placement or eligibility should be banked by December of senior year and self-reported after submission.
For the picture across every top school, see our full guide to which colleges require the SAT and ACT. From there, UC Berkeley EECS vs LandS Computer Science: How the Two CS Paths Differ for Admissions, How to Get Into UC Berkeley for Engineering, and SAT and ACT Prep Timeline: 9th Through 12th Grade Roadmap for Elite Admissions can help you put testing inside a complete UC Berkeley application strategy.
What Does This Policy Mean for Your Application Strategy?
Strategically, Berkeley asks families to hold two truths at once: the current file is score-free, and the direction of travel points back toward testing. Our guidance follows both. Build the visible file to Berkeley’s actual standard, maximum available math and science rigor, PIQs drafted and cut with care, activities that show sustained depth, because engineering and computer science pools at Berkeley behave like the most selective programs in the country with or without a number. Then test anyway, junior spring, as insurance and for the rest of the list. Nonresidents should watch the admissions board’s roadmap most closely, since the floated design would restore SAT and ACT requirements for them first, and a family planning two or three years out should assume the wall around scores may not survive that horizon.
Frequently Asked Questions About UC Berkeley’s Testing Policy
Test blind, in UC’s language test-free: SAT and ACT scores are not considered in admissions or scholarship decisions at all, even when submitted, unlike test optional schools where submitted scores are read.
Usually yes: for the rest of the college list, for UC eligibility and course placement, and as insurance given that Berkeley’s own faculty are leading the push to restore testing. Berkeley itself will not read the score in selection.
Hundreds of UC STEM faculty, organized in part from Berkeley’s mathematics department, signed a May 2026 letter urging the return of standardized math testing, citing diagnostics showing at least 20 percent of Berkeley’s first-semester calculus students with math deficits.
A-G rigor and grades in context, the four Personal Insight Questions, and sustained activities. Berkeley also uniquely invites a subset of applicants to submit recommendation letters through its augmented review.
Yes, they remain the external benchmark that still speaks: UC encourages completing the exams tied to coursework as evidence of mastery, which matters most for engineering and computer science pools where math signal is everything.
It is under live review. The settlement locking the policy expired in spring 2025, the admissions board’s March 2026 minutes floated Smarter Balanced for Californians and SAT or ACT for nonresidents, and a systemwide roadmap was due by mid-2026. No change has been adopted yet.
The single UC application covers all nine campuses, opening in August and closing at the end of November, with no early round, no interviews, and decisions in late March.
Prospectively, yes: the design the admissions board floated would require SAT or ACT scores from nonresidents while using state assessments for Californians, so out-of-state families planning ahead should bank a score.
Sources: University of California Admissions, College Board SAT Suite, ACT, NCES College Navigator, College Scorecard.
About Oriel Admissions
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