Ivy League SAT requirements for the class of 2028

What happened

Between 2024 and 2026, the Ivies reinstated their testing requirements one after another. Columbia held out the longest, and in June 2026 it reversed course too, effective for the 2027 to 2028 admissions cycle. That means first-year applicants enrolling in fall 2028, today’s class of 2028, apply with a score. All eight schools. Limited hardship waivers exist, but a score is the expectation.

The era of planning an Ivy application around “test-optional” is over. The broader picture, including the 60 plus schools requiring a score for fall 2027, is in our full reinstatement breakdown.

What it means for a current sophomore

The class of 2028 has runway, and that’s exactly why this is the moment to plan rather than relax. A meaningful jump takes ten or twelve weeks of targeted work. Waiting until junior fall means preparing during the hardest academic year while the deadlines close in. The families who treat the score as a spring-of-sophomore-year project buy themselves an easy junior year.

What it means for a current junior

For the class of 2027, 7 of the 9 most selective schools already require a score, and the October SAT is the last date that’s safe for early decision. Count back ten or twelve weeks from October and the math is plain: the summer is the window.

The bar at these schools

Competitive applicants at the most selective schools cluster in the 1500s, and a 1500 allows only six or eight misses across the whole test. At that altitude, generic studying stops working, because the last hundred points almost never come from missing knowledge. They come from the other seven leaks: trap answers, misreads, the clock, and test-day nerves.