SSAT or ISEE: What 49 Private Schools' Requirements Actually Say

You have a school list, or the start of one. Every application mentions a test. Two names keep coming up, the SSAT and the ISEE, and the obvious question is which one your child actually needs.

Here is the honest answer from our data. We track admissions requirements for 49 selective US private schools. The single largest group, 19 of the 49, says outright that it accepts both tests. Only 17 name exactly one of the two. So for most families, SSAT vs ISEE is not a choice the school makes for you. Your school list makes it. Build the list first, then read this post backward from it.

One note on the sample before the numbers: these 49 are the schools our research tracks, weighted toward names that come up in Bay Area parent communities and similar circles. Treat this as a sample of much-discussed schools, not a census.

What Each Test Is

Both tests now live on the same official site, admission.org, which is where these facts come from.

The SSAT has three levels: Elementary for grades 3-4, Middle for grades 5-7, and Upper for grades 8-11. It assesses verbal, math, and reading skills. It also includes an unscored writing sample, and it often ends with an unscored experimental section.

The ISEE has four levels, and its rule is explicit: the grade your child is applying to sets the level, not the grade they're in now. Primary Levels 2, 3, and 4 are for children applying to grades 2, 3, and 4. Lower Level is for applicants to grades 5-6, Middle Level for grades 7-8, Upper Level for grades 9-12. Lower, Middle, and Upper all have the same five parts: Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and an unscored essay. The Primary levels are shorter, built around reading and mathematics.

Note: We could not verify score scales from the official pages, so this post names no score numbers. If you want to know how a school reads SSAT or ISEE scores, ask its admissions office directly. Schools that accept both will read either report.

What the 49 Schools Require

We computed this from our file, school by school. Where a school's entry had a note attached, we grouped it by the main value and kept the note, and we name the notable ones below.

• 19 schools accept both, outright. This is the largest group. It includes The Harker School in San Jose, Phillips Academy Andover and Phillips Exeter Academy in New England, The Dalton School and The Brearley School in New York, and all three Washington DC schools in our set: Sidwell Friends, St. Albans, and National Cathedral.
• 2 schools say "both" with a twist, so we count them separately. Menlo School lists STAR as its primary assessment, with ISEE or SSAT for out-of-area applicants — both tests do work there, just not as the first choice. The Westminster Schools in Atlanta is a different case: its entry reads "both (JATP or SSAT)," and that detail names no ISEE at all. We don't count it as a both-tests school; check its admissions page directly.
• 12 schools name the ISEE. Nine list it alone: Horace Mann and Trinity in New York, Roxbury Latin near Boston, and a solid Texas block, Hockaday, Greenhill, The Episcopal School of Dallas, Trinity Valley, St. John's in Houston, and Kinkaid. In fact, six of the seven Texas schools in our set name the ISEE; the exception is St. Mark's School of Texas, which accepts both. The other three ISEE entries are in and around Los Angeles: Harvard-Westlake and Brentwood mark the test optional, and Polytechnic in Pasadena lists the ISEE with its school code.
• 5 schools name the SSAT. Three are the Seattle-area schools in our set, Lakeside, The Overlake School, and Eastside Prep, all serving grades 5-12. The other two are near Boston: Milton Academy and Belmont Hill.
• 5 schools use neither test. Each does its own thing. Crystal Springs Uplands is test-optional at the moment. The Nueva School recommends an IQ assessment for lower and middle school applicants. BASIS Independent Silicon Valley runs its own entrance exam. Marlborough School uses the Character Skills Snapshot. Stanford Online High School lists no ISEE or SSAT. Four of these five are Bay Area schools (one of them online-only), which surprises people: in the region where these tests get discussed most, several big-name schools don't use them.
• 6 schools are unknown in our file: Castilleja, Sacred Heart Prep, Pinewood, La Jolla Country Day, Holy Innocents' Episcopal, and Atlanta International. We don't have a confirmed answer for them, so go straight to their admissions pages.

The pattern behind the numbers is geography, not prestige. Seattle runs on the SSAT. Texas and Los Angeles lean ISEE. New York and DC lean both-friendly, with two New York ISEE holdouts. The one place the two single-test camps sit side by side is Boston, where Roxbury Latin names the ISEE while Milton and Belmont Hill name the SSAT.

Deadlines Cluster Hard in January

• Of the 49 schools, 44 list January in their application deadline month. That count includes St. John's in Houston, which lists January with rolling admission, and Hockaday, which lists December/January.
• Four schools list February: The Bishop's School, Andover, Pace Academy, and La Jolla Country Day. One lists December: Hackley in Tarrytown.
• Whatever test your child takes, the testing that counts happens in the fall before that January deadline.
• Book a fall date early enough that a retake is still possible before applications close, in case the first sitting goes badly.
• January deadlines aren't unique to private-school admissions testing, either. AMC 8 eligibility runs on a similar fall-to-January clock, so if your family is juggling an admissions test and a math competition in the same year, plan backward from January on both.

How to Decide, in Order

1. Write the school list. Everything else follows from it.
2. Check each school's current admissions page. Our requirements data was assembled in June 2026, test policies are in flux at several schools, and they move. Crystal Springs' own entry says test-optional "currently," and that word is doing real work. If your list also includes a public magnet or placement track alongside private schools, common for Bay Area families, we've separately broken down Cupertino's own math placement test.
3. If any school on your list names one test, that settles it. Schools that accept both will take either report, so prepare for the test your strictest school requires. A list with Lakeside on it means SSAT. A list with Hockaday on it means ISEE.
4. If every school accepts both, pick one and prepare once. Check the level bands: the ISEE sets your child's level by the grade they're applying to, and the SSAT's bands run 3-4, 5-7, and 8-11. See where your child's entry year lands on each before choosing. For general strategies that show up across placement-style tests, see our guide to math placement test prep.
5. If your list mixes an SSAT-only school with an ISEE-only school, your child sits both. In our set that mostly happens on Boston-area lists.
6. If a school is in the neither or unknown groups, ask it directly. Several run their own assessments, and no amount of SSAT or ISEE prep substitutes for knowing that in September rather than December.

The test question feels big in the summer before applying. The data says it is the small one. Nineteen of the 49 schools say outright they will take either test, the single-test schools cluster by city, and nearly every deadline lands in January. The decision that actually shapes your fall is the list of schools itself. Settle the list by early fall, and the test picks itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between the SSAT and the ISEE?

The SSAT and ISEE are both private school admission tests, but they're built differently. The SSAT has three levels covering grades 3-11, tests verbal, math, and reading, and includes an unscored writing sample. The ISEE has four levels covering grades 2-12, tests five areas (Verbal Reasoning, Quantitative Reasoning, Reading Comprehension, Mathematics Achievement, and an unscored essay), and sets its level by the grade your child is applying to, not their current grade.

Do private schools prefer the SSAT or the ISEE?

Most don't prefer one over the other. In our tracked sample of 49 private schools, 19 accept both tests outright, the largest single group. Only 17 name exactly one test, and the rest fall into smaller categories like "both, with a twist" or no test at all.

Which private schools require the SSAT only?

In our tracked sample, five schools name the SSAT alone: three Seattle-area schools (Lakeside, The Overlake School, and Eastside Prep) and two Boston-area schools (Milton Academy and Belmont Hill). Always confirm on the school's own admissions page, since policies change.

Which private schools require the ISEE only?

In our tracked sample, 12 schools name the ISEE alone, including Horace Mann and Trinity in New York, Roxbury Latin near Boston, and six of the seven Texas schools we track: Hockaday, Greenhill, The Episcopal School of Dallas, Trinity Valley, St. John's in Houston, and Kinkaid.

Can my child take the SSAT and ISEE for the same school list?

Only if your list mixes a school that names the SSAT with a school that names the ISEE. Schools that accept both tests will take either score report, so you only need to sit both exams when a single-test school on your list requires the one your child hasn't taken.

What is a good SSAT or ISEE score for private school admission?

There's no single passing score. Score requirements vary by school and aren't published on the tests' official pages, so the honest answer is to ask each school's admissions office directly what range they typically admit.

When should my child take the SSAT or ISEE?

Take it in the fall before your January application deadlines. In our tracked sample, 44 of 49 schools list a January deadline, so a fall test date leaves room for a retake if the first attempt doesn't go well.

Is the ISEE harder than the SSAT?

Neither test is inherently harder; they test overlapping skills in different formats. The ISEE has more levels (four, versus the SSAT's three) and sets its level by the grade being applied to, which can make level selection trickier than difficulty itself.