Exam requirement

All prospective freshmen must submit scores from either the ACT with Writing or SAT with Essay.

A few guidelines

• If you're applying for admission to the fall term, be sure to take your admissions tests no later than December of your senior year/last year prior to high school graduation — preferably earlier — to ensure that your application receives prompt and full consideration. It is unlikely that scores from tests taken after our December deadline will arrive in our office in time for our review process.
• Report ACT and/or SAT scores on your admissions application, then request that an official copy of the scores be sent to us from the testing agency. You can have your official score report sent to one UC campus, and all campuses you apply to will receive it.
• In the College Board’s Score Choice module, we encourage you to send all official scores to UC. We will use the highest scores from a single administration. There is no disadvantage to submitting all scores. A higher sub-score from another test date may be used to meet university or campus graduation requirements after admission (dependent on the campus).
• For the ACT with Writing test, we will focus on the highest combined score from the same test administration.
• For the SAT with Essay, we will focus on the highest total score from a single test date.
• We do not require results of tests taken for the purpose of talent programs in middle or junior high school (e.g., Johns Hopkins Center for Talent Youth, Duke University's Talent Identification Program, UC Berkeley's Academic Talent and Development Program, etc.). Those test scores do not have to be sent to us.
• We do not accept test substitutions.

International students

• All students are required to take either the ACT with Writing or SAT with Essay. Self-report your scores on your application and submit official test results to UC by the stated deadline. 
• We're sympathetic to the fact that students living in certain countries where these tests are not offered (e.g., the Islamic Republic of Iran) are challenged to fulfill this requirement. However, given the large number of applications we receive from students throughout the world, we very rarely make exceptions to the requirement.
• If you’ve completed all your secondary school/high school in a country where English was not the language of instruction, you must demonstrate English proficiency by taking the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS) examination.

If you’ve had some secondary education in the U.S., you may also need to demonstrate English proficiency.

Be sure to look at the international undergraduate admission section for more information about what you need to do and when.

Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate and SAT Subject Tests

• We recommend that students who complete Advanced Placement courses complete the related AP examination to demonstrate subject mastery. Similarly, International Baccalaureate scores and scores from SAT Subject Tests can be used to showcase academic mastery. In order to receive unit credit toward the baccalaureate degree, you must submit an official copy of your AP or IB scores directly from the testing agency. This can be done in the summer following high school graduation.