realistic SAT target score Choosing a target score for the SAT is one of the most pivotal milestones in your college admissions journey. In the landscape of 2026 higher education, standardized testing has experienced a dramatic resurgence. Elite institutions—including Harvard, Yale, MIT, Dartmouth, Brown, Stanford, Caltech, Cornell, and the University of Pennsylvania—have officially ended their pandemic-era test-optional policies and once again require SAT or ACT scores from