Stanford will continue considering legacy status while no longer being test-optional for the fall 2026 admissions cycle, according to the University’s newly released admissions criteria.
The move comes after Assembly Bill 1780, which will prohibit universities benefiting from state-funded financial assistance from “providing a legacy preference or donor preference in admissions… to an applicant.”
To comply with the new bill, Stanford will withdraw from the Cal Grant, a state-sponsored fund that supports Californian students in financial need. The University will be “replacing state-funded student financial aid with university funding, keeping our students’ financial support whole,” wrote Brad Howard, associate vice president of University communications, in an email to the Daily.
Regarding legacy admissions, Howard said there are “important issues on which there are many perspectives.” He added that the University will conduct “continued study and analysis” on the issue.
While Stanford will continue considering applicants’ legacy status, the University will no longer be test-optional for the upcoming fall 2026 admissions cycle.
Stanford’s renewed test requirements mean that applicants will have to submit either SAT or ACT scores, although the admissions office clarified that there is “no minimum GPA or test score.”
The decision to reinstate standardized testing was made public last year. In the announcement, the University wrote that “test scores represent only one part of a holistic review of each applicant to the university.” Academic potential will remain the primary factor on which applicants are evaluated, the University wrote, for which standardized tests serve as an important indicator.
According to Howard, the consideration of test scores was based on a faculty review that showed a strong correlation between standardized testing and academic performance at Stanford. The requirement’s “implementation was timed to allow students to prepare,” he wrote.
The decision reverses the previous removal of standardized testing as an application requirement in 2021.
Including test scores allows Stanford to “consider the fullest array of information in support of each applicant,” Howard wrote.