Note: This article was published in February of 2015. Colleges and universities may have changed their positions regarding super scoring the old and redesigned SATs as well as their positions regarding essay scores. Please refer to the College Board's list of colleges and universities' decisions regarding the SAT essay or consult the admissions office directly for more up-to-date information.

Did you hear the latest? XYZ University won’t be accepting the current SAT for the class of 2017 (current sophomores). It’s making that class take the redesigned SAT! I’m having my child switch to the ACT, so we have more college options. What are you going to do?

Let’s hit the brakes for a moment.

Rumors are swirling as to how colleges and universities will respond to the College Board’s upcoming redesigned SAT. Will colleges accept both the current SAT tests (the October, November, December, and January sittings) and the redesigned SAT (March and beyond) for the sophomore class? Up until now, we have been encouraging sophomores either to start prepping earlier for the current SAT, maybe reserving one final test sitting for the redesigned SAT in March, or to switch to the ACT. Will colleges and universities force us to change our approach?

At the moment, every college or university that has made a decision about the current and redesigned SATs will accept both tests for the class of 2017. A few Ivy League schools and others are still deciding on their admissions decision, but it would appear, at the moment, that they have little to gain by requiring the class of 2017 to submit only the redesigned SAT.

Below is a list of some of the top liberal arts colleges and universities with their decisions as to whether they will accept the current (“old”) SAT for the class of 2017, whether or not they will require the “optional” essay, and whether or not they will “super score” across both versions of the SAT (Note: when a college "super scores" the SAT, it takes the highest section of Reading, Math, and Writing from multiple test sittings and combines them for a composite "super score"). If they are listed as “yes” or “no,” that means that an admissions officer confirmed the school’s decision. A note of “likely” or “not likely” indicates that they are leaning toward an affirmative or negative position, and “undecided” means that the college has not yet decided. As we gather more data about these and other colleges, we will keep you updated.
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School	Will accept old SAT for class of 2017?	Will the writing section be required?	Will you super score both tests?
Amherst College Amherst, MA	Yes	Undecided	Undecided
Auburn University	Yes	Yes	No
Boston College Chestnut Hill, MA	Yes	No	Yes
Bowdoin College Brunswick, ME	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Brown University Providence, RI	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Carleton College Northfield, MN	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Carnegie Mellon University Pittsburgh, PA	Preference for junior or senior year tests	Yes	Not likely
Colgate University Hamilton, NY	Likely	Not likely	Not likely
College of William and Mary Williamsburg, VA	Likely	No	Undecided
Cornell University Ithaca, NY	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Dartmouth College Hanover, NH	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Florida State University Tallahassee, FL	Likely	Undecided	Undecided
George Washington University Washington, DC	Yes	Undecided	Undecided
Georgia Institute of Technology Atlanta, GA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gettysburg College Gettysburg, PA	Yes	Not likely	Not likely
Hamilton College Clinton, NY	Yes	Undecided	Likely
Harvard University Cambridge, MA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Harvey Mudd College Claremont, CA	Yes	No	Yes
Haverford College Haverford, PA	Yes	Yes	Undecided
Kenyon College Gambier, OH	Likely	Not likely	Undecided
Lehigh University Bethlehem, PA	Likely	No	Undecided
Massachusetts Institute of Technology Cambridge, MA	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Middlebury College Middlebury, VT	Likely	Likely	Undecided
New York University New York, NY	Yes	Yes	No
Northwestern University Evanston, IL	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Ohio State University—Columbus Columbus, OH	Yes	Yes	Not likely
Pennsylvania State University—University Park University Park, PA	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Pomona College Claremont, CA	Yes	Yes	No
Princeton University Princeton, NJ	Yes	Yes	Undecided
Rice University Houston, TX	Yes	Yes	Likely
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey—New Brunswick Piscataway, NJ	Yes	Likely	Undecided
Stanford University Stanford, CA	Yes	Undecided	Likely
Swarthmore College Swarthmore, PA	Yes	Undecided	Undecided
University of California—Berkeley Berkeley, CA	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
University of Florida Gainesville, FL	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
University of Notre Dame Notre Dame, IN	Yes	Likely	Not likely
University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, PA	Likely	Likely	Unlikely
University of Virginia Charlottesville, VA	Undecided	Undecided	Yes
Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Vassar College Poughkeepsie, NY	Likely	Likely	Likely
Virginia Tech Blacksburg, VA	Likely	Not likely	Likely
Washington and Lee University Lexington, VA	Likely	Likely	Likely
Wellesley College Wellesley, MA	Yes	Undecided	Undecided
Wesleyan University Middletown, CT	Yes	No (test optional)	Likely
Williams College Williamstown, MA	Undecided	Undecided	Undecided
Yale University New Haven, CT	Yes	Undecided	Not likely

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Although no college has stated that it will not accept the current SAT for the class of 2017, many are taking different approaches to the new test. For example, Wesleyan University, a test optional school that does not currently require the ACT writing portion, will not require the optional redesigned SAT essay. Boston College will super score across the two versions of the SAT, but Auburn University will limit its super scoring either to the old or the new version. Finally, Carnegie Mellon prefers that students take the old SAT during his/her junior year. They will still take a sophomore sitting, but would prefer that their applicants submit junior/senior scores. By contrast, UPenn will accept the current SAT as long as the test was taken within 5 years of the student's application.

Later on this spring, more colleges and universities will provide more specific information as to their testing requirements. Until then, if you have specific questions about a college/university of interest, the best thing you can do is to call the admissions office and speak directly with an officer. For the time being, most colleges seem to be choosing the path that is most consistent with their current test policy.

Correction 2/18/2015: Swarthmore College was previously listed as a "yes" for requiring the writing section and super scoring the tests. They are currently undecided.

Correction 2/23/2015: Carnegie Mellon University will accept current SAT scores for tests taken during a student's sophomore year, but its preference is that students submit scores from junior or senior year. The article previously stated that Carnegie Mellon would not accept sophomore year scores.

Correction: 4/1/2015: Penn State University was listed as "yes" for accepting the current SAT for the class of 2017, "yes" for requiring the writing portion, and "no" for superscoring across the two tests. It is undecided in its decision about the redesigned SAT.

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