How to Self-Report SAT Scores on the Common App (2026)

To self-report SAT scores, you type them into the Testing section of your application yourself instead of paying College Board to send an official report. On the Common App that's My Common Application, then Testing: say yes to self-reporting, pick the SAT under the tests you've taken, and enter your best scores. Most of the selective colleges we checked accept that and ask for the official report only if you enroll. A few, including Princeton, Georgetown and USC, still want it from the testing agency when you apply.

This guide is the how. Whether you should send a score to a test-optional college at all is a separate question, and our guide to whether to submit SAT scores answers it. Below: what self-reporting is, a step-by-step walkthrough of the Common App Testing section for the SAT and ACT, how superscores go in, other applications, and a table of 21 colleges and their rules, each read from the college's own admissions site in October 2026.

What Self-Reporting SAT Scores Means

A self-reported score is one you enter on the application. An official score is a report the testing agency sends the college directly. Common App is clear that the two are different things: self-reported scores "are not a replacement for your official scores." Colleges that accept self-reporting read your typed scores during admission and then check them against the official report from students who enroll.

Self-reporting matters for three reasons this month:

• Speed. A score you type in counts the day you type it. If you took the SAT on October 3, your scores come out Friday, October 16, and can be on a November 1 early application that afternoon.
• Cost. College Board gives you four free score sends per weekend SAT, but only until nine days after the test. After that each additional report costs $15. At colleges that accept self-reported scores, you don't need to buy one until you've chosen where to enroll.
• Control. You decide which colleges see a score by what is listed in your application when you submit to each one (more on that below).

The catch is accuracy. Colleges compare your self-report with the official report later, and several say a mismatch can cost you the offer. Stanford, for example, "reserves the right to revoke an offer of admission" when self-reported scores don't align with official ones.

How to Self-Report SAT Scores on the Common App

The Testing section is part of the common application every college on your list receives, so you fill it in once. Here is the order of steps, following Common App's own help guides:

1. Open the section. Sign in, go to My Common Application and open Testing. Cornell's admissions site gives the path as "My Common Application > Testing > Tests Taken".
2. Answer the self-report question. The section first asks whether you want to self-report scores. If you answer No, Common App says, "That will complete the section." Answer Yes to enter scores.
3. Choose your tests. Under Tests Taken, select the SAT, the ACT or both. The section also takes AP, IB, Cambridge and English proficiency tests like TOEFL, IELTS and Duolingo.
4. Enter your best scores. Common App tells applicants to "self-report your best scores as instructed, regardless of what individual colleges require." Copy each number exactly as it appears on your College Board score report. Some colleges' instructions, Columbia's and Georgia Tech's among them, still use the SAT's older section name, Evidence-Based Reading and Writing, for what is now the Reading and Writing score.
5. Add tests you're planning. Common App lets you enter tests you "have taken and/or plan to take", so you can include a November or December SAT you're registered for.
6. Review before each submission. Whatever is listed when you submit to a college goes to that college: "If the test scores are listed they will be provided to the school."

Two follow-up rules decide how this plays out across a whole list. First, Common App doesn't let you change an application after you've submitted it to a college: "you must contact the college's admissions office directly." Edits you make later reach only the colleges you haven't submitted to yet. Second, colleges can hide test answers on their copy of your application, but per Common App "they will, however, still receive your answers." If you don't want a test-optional college to see a score, remove the score before you submit there, then add it back for the next college. Common App's help article describes exactly that.

College Questions About Your Scores

Test-optional colleges usually add a question of their own, in their section of the application, asking whether to use your scores. Northwestern's reads: "Do you want us to consider SAT or ACT scores in our review of your application?" Columbia asks in its supplement. That answer can matter more than the Testing section itself: Boston University says that once you submit, the answer "cannot be changed," while UVA lets early applicants change their choice by email until 5 p.m. on November 22.

How to Self-Report ACT Scores

The ACT goes in the same section, with a slightly different rule for which numbers to use. Common App's ACT guidance says to "report your highest individual composite and test scores earned so far, even if they are from different test dates." Under the enhanced ACT, science is optional: Common App accepts results from the ACT, the ACT with science, the ACT with writing or both, and says that if you skipped science or writing, "there won't be a score" for it. If you took the writing test, enter the writing subscore, not the combined English/Writing score. Our guide to sending ACT scores covers the official half: ACT includes reports to up to four colleges in the test price if you list them when you register, and each additional report costs $20.

How Superscores Are Entered

This is where students get tripped up. On the Common App you enter your best scores, and for the ACT that explicitly means your best section scores even when they come from different dates. That doesn't mean you calculate a superscore and pass it off as one sitting. MIT tells applicants not to "enter a self-calculated superscore as a single sitting," and Caltech asks you to report your sittings and says you "should not report a superscore as a single sitting." The college does the superscoring on its end. Yale, Stanford and Michigan are exceptions: all three let you report a superscore, and Yale adds that a super-scored ACT composite "must match what the testing agency provides."

A few colleges ask for something different on their own forms. Illinois tells applicants to report their highest ACT composite or highest SAT total, with "no super-scoring." When a college's instructions differ from the Common App's general rule, follow the college. For how each test's superscore works, see our explainers on SAT superscoring and the ACT superscore.

Self-Reporting Outside the Common App

• Coalition application (Scoir). You're asked whether you're applying test-optional, and Scoir says "only your highest SAT/ACT scores" go to colleges. Self-reported scores are "not shared with a test-blind Coalition college."
• MIT's own application. MIT doesn't use the Common App. You self-report in its portal, and MIT says new scores can be added there "even after submitting your application."
• College applicant portals. Several colleges collect scores in their own portal instead of, or as well as, the application: Michigan's applicant portal, NYU's Applicant Portal after you submit, Florida's Gator Portal, and UT Austin's MyStatus, where you can self-report only after you've requested an official score from the testing agency.
• University of California. UC says it "will not consider SAT or ACT test scores" for admission or scholarships, and scores can only be reported after you submit, for uses like course placement.

Colleges That Accept Self-Reported SAT Scores

The table shows whether each college takes self-reported SAT and ACT scores and when it needs the official report. We read each rule on the college's own admissions site on October 8, 2026.

Fifteen of the 21 accept self-reporting, which is the pattern at most selective colleges. The six that don't are not all test-required: Princeton, USC, Wisconsin and Rutgers are test-optional for fall 2027, but if you choose to submit a score there, it has to come from the testing agency. Penn and Cornell also accept self-reported scores but ask recruited athletes for official reports.

When You Need the Official SAT Score Report

At a self-report college, the official report is usually an enrollment step, due after you've accepted the offer. Every college in the table that accepts self-reporting says so in some form: "upon enrollment" at MIT, "prior to enrolling" at Yale, only if you "matriculate" at Caltech. Order it then, from your College Board account, and send only to the college you're attending. Our guide to sending SAT scores to colleges walks through the order screen.

At an official-report college, the report has to arrive in time for your deadline, so order it as soon as your scores are released. If you took the October 3 SAT, the free window for that test ran through October 12, so a report you order now costs $15. For a November 1 early round at one of those colleges, order it on October 16, the day scores come out. Our early action deadline table lists the score cutoffs colleges publish for the early round.

Frequently Asked Questions About Self-Reporting SAT Scores

Do colleges accept self-reported SAT scores?

Most selective colleges do. In our table, 15 of 21 accept them, including MIT, Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Duke, Michigan and UVA. Princeton, Georgetown, USC, UT Austin, Wisconsin and Rutgers want the official report from the testing agency.

Where do I self-report SAT scores on the Common App?

In the Testing section, under My Common Application. Answer Yes to self-reporting, pick the SAT under Tests Taken, and enter your best scores exactly as they appear on your score report.

Should I self-report my superscore?

Report your best scores the way the application asks, but don't present a superscore you calculated as one test date. MIT and Caltech both say so explicitly, and Illinois asks for your highest single total. At most colleges the college combines your best sections itself; Yale, Stanford and Michigan let you report a superscore, and at Yale an ACT superscore must match the one ACT provides.

Can I change my self-reported scores after submitting?

Not on an application you've already submitted. Common App says changes after submission go through the college's admissions office. Edits do reach any college you submit to afterward, and some colleges, like MIT, Michigan and NYU, take new scores through their own portals.

Do I still have to send an official SAT score report?

Usually only if you enroll, at colleges that accept self-reporting. At colleges that don't, send the official report before the application deadline. Remember the free window: four free sends until nine days after each weekend SAT, then $15 per report.

The score you type in is only as good as the test behind it. Take a free practice quiz to see where you stand before the November 7 or December 5 SAT, or create a free Larry Learns account for daily practice from 25,000+ SAT and ACT questions on web, iPhone or Android, with 3 free quizzes a day.