Is the GRE required in 2026?

The short answer, and what actually changed

The GRE is not a blanket requirement for graduate school in 2026. Beginning around 2020, a large number of programs made the General Test optional or stopped accepting it, a shift that started during the pandemic and has, for the most part, stuck. Some programs have since reinstated it.

The important nuance, and the thing most pages on this topic get wrong, is that "not required" is not one status. A program can mark the GRE as optional (you may submit and a strong score can still help), not accepted (scores will not be looked at, so do not send them), or waived (the requirement is formally suspended for this cycle). Lumping these together is how applicants either waste a test fee or skip a score that would have helped.

There is no shortcut around reading your own program's admissions page. The rest of this guide tells you what to expect by degree level and field, shows a verified snapshot of well-known programs, and gives you a three-step check you can run on any program in a couple of minutes.

It depends on three things

Whether the GRE is required for you is set by, in order of weight:

1. Degree level. Funded PhD programs are the most likely to still require it, because test scores feed into funding and fellowship decisions. Course-based masters programs are the most likely to have dropped it.
2. Field. Quantitative and STEM programs lean toward keeping or recommending the GRE more than humanities and many social sciences, though there are loud exceptions in both directions.
3. The specific program. This is the one that actually decides it. Two departments at the same university routinely have opposite policies, so a university-wide answer is almost never the real answer.

GRE for masters programs

Across taught masters programs, optional and not-accepted policies are now common, especially outside the hard sciences. Business and analytics masters vary widely. Engineering and computer science are genuinely mixed: some of the most selective programs have dropped the GRE entirely while others still require it.

A clean example of how program-specific this is: at MIT, the department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Not accepteddoes not use GRE scores at all, regardless of citizenship, with the single exception of its LGO program. That is a far more useful fact than "MIT is mostly test-optional," which is the level most pages stop at.

If you are aiming at funded masters or a thesis-based research masters, treat it more like the PhD case below, since the funding logic starts to apply.

GRE for PhD programs

PhD programs are where requirements most often survive, because admission usually comes with funding (a teaching or research assistantship or a fellowship), and committees use every signal they can when they are committing years of support. Even so, the picture is far from uniform.

The strongest pattern in 2026 is the published, per-program table. Yale's Graduate School, for instance, lists each program as Required, Optional, or Not accepted, and dates the page (it was marked 25 September 2025 for the 2025-26 cycle). Economics, Chemistry, and Political Science were among those requiring it. Harvard's Griffin GSAS uses the same three labels and leaves the choice to each program. Duke lists 12 programs that require the GRE against more than 50 that make it optional. The takeaway is not a single number, it is that you must read your specific program's row.

GRE for MBA and business programs

Business school is a separate world, and an important one if you found this page while deciding between the GRE and the GMAT. The GRE is accepted by a large majority of business schools, so for most programs it is a genuine alternative to the GMAT.

At the most selective programs, though, a test score is usually unavoidable. Stanford's Graduate School of Business, for example, requires either the GMAT or the GRE for its MBA, with no waiver path stated for the 2025-26 cycle. Several peer programs are similar. So if you are targeting a top MBA, the realistic question is usually GRE versus GMAT, not whether to test at all. Confirm each program's own page, because waiver policies move year to year.

What “optional” actually means for your application

The three labels are not interchangeable, and the difference changes what you should do:

• Optional. You may submit, and the program will consider a score if you send one. A score comfortably above the median of recently admitted students can strengthen a borderline file. A score below that median usually does not help and can be left off.
• Not accepted. Scores will not be reviewed. Sending them is wasted money and adds nothing. Do not test for these programs.
• Waived.The requirement is formally suspended for this cycle. Treat it like "optional" for the year, and re-check next cycle, because waivers are often temporary.

Should you take the GRE if it is optional? The honest rule of thumb: if you can realistically score at or above a program's admitted-student median, a strong score is a low-risk way to add a signal, particularly for competitive, funded, or international applicants. If you cannot, your time is better spent on the parts of the application that are required. A free practice mock is the fastest way to find out where you would land before you commit to the real exam. You can sit one for free, then convert your scaled score to its official percentile.

How to check your specific program in 3 steps

1. Find the program's own admissions page,not the university's general graduate-school page. Department and program pages are where the real policy lives, and the two often disagree.
2. Look for the exact word:required, optional, not accepted, or waived. If a page only says "no GRE required," check whether scores are still accepted, since "optional" and "not accepted" are very different for your strategy.
3. Check the date. If the page has not been updated for the current cycle, do not assume it is current. Email the admissions office to confirm. Policies that read as settled can change between cycles.

Verified 2026 status at a glance

A snapshot of well-known programs, each checked against its own admissions page in June 2026 and linked so you can verify it yourself. We deliberately use the four-way status labels rather than a vague "test-optional," and we left out programs whose pages had not been updated for the current cycle rather than guess.

Want this for your shortlist rather than these examples? Run the three-step check above on each program, browse our GRE requirements directory for more, and read our editorial standards for how we verify and date every requirement we publish.

Frequently asked questions