Should a California student take the SAT? What the numbers show

Fewer California seniors take the SAT than before 2021

138,763 students in California’s class of 2026 took the SAT at least once in high school, 30% of the state’s graduates by the College Board’s count. For the class of 2020 it was 67%. The drop came with the class of 2021, the first to apply to UC after UC stopped using SAT and ACT scores, and the class whose test dates were cancelled in the spring of 2020.

Took the SAT, class of 2026

138,763

Share of graduates

30%

Mean score

1108

The share is the College Board’s, printed in each year’s report: SAT takers in the graduating class divided by the WICHE estimate of the state’s high school graduates. It counts public and private schools. The class of 2017 counts only students who took the redesigned SAT.

How California’s test takers score

The students who still test are a smaller and more self-selected group, and they score higher. In the class of 2020, 7.6% of California’s 284,631 takers scored 1400 or higher. In the class of 2026, 14% of 138,763 did. The mean moved from 1049 to 1108.

Each student counted once, at their most recent score. Shares are computed from the College Board’s counts per band, except the class of 2026, whose report prints only whole-percent shares.

UC applications jumped the year scores stopped counting

From fall 2020 to fall 2021, UC’s first-year applicants rose from 172,308 to 203,842, up 18.3%, the largest one-year rise in number in UC’s series since 1994. Just over half of that rise came from outside California. California residents alone went from 113,544 to 128,256, up 13.0%. In fall 2025, 130,896 California residents applied.

Applicants to any UC campus, counted once each, by residency at the time of application. UC has not used SAT or ACT scores to admit anyone since the fall 2021 class; a student may still send them, and UC may use them for course placement after admission.

Who still sends scores to California’s selective colleges

Every college publishes a Common Data Set, and section C9 says what share of its enrolled first-years sent an SAT score and how they scored. At the 6 colleges where we have both years, the share sending an SAT fell at every one between fall 2015 and fall 2025. At Stanford and Caltech more than half of fall 2025 first-years sent one.

The middle half of the scores that were sent

Share of enrolled first-time first-years who submitted an SAT score, as each college printed it (some students sent an ACT instead). The middle 50% runs from the 25th to the 75th percentile of the SAT total of those who sent one, so it describes the students who chose to send, not the whole class. Caltech printed section ranges only. The University of California is test-free, so UC Berkeley and UCLA leave section C9 blank; Pitzer is test-free as well, and the University of San Diego left the section blank. The 2015-16 shares are from each college’s 2015-16 Common Data Set, when most students sent a score from the older SAT.

How we advise families

A student aiming only at UC and Cal State does not need the SAT for admission. A student with private colleges on the list should plan to take it once in the spring of junior year and decide in the fall whether to send it: if the score sits at or above a college’s middle 50% in the table above, sending usually helps; below it, the share sending tells you how many enrolled students did not send one.