Should I take the SAT or go test-optional (Harvard, Yale, etc...)?

Hello everyone! I am an Italian senior student at High School. I am going to apply to college in the US (undergraduate): I still don’t have the full list of colleges but having a GPA of 9.58/10 I am going to try with the best (Harvard, Yale, etc…). I had thought of going test-optional from the beginning because I was adviced to do this way, but I found out the SAT is actually easier than I thought and that I can work it out with less stress than I thought.
Harvard is my first choice and I thought of applying early action. Right now I don’t think I am in time to apply for the November 7 SAT session, and the next one is in December, so I wouldn’t be able to apply Early anymore. Do you think it would be beneficial to wait and apply Regular Decision, but having an SAT score, or applying Early but test-optional.

Because of the pandemic, many students won’t be able to take the SAT or ACT. So almost every college and university in the US has gone test-optional or no test this year. It really is OK for you to skip it.

It’s true that it’s “OK” to skip it, but you would also benefit from a score that is higher than the average admitted student. If you find the test easy and can score 1520 or higher, it would be beneficial to have it as part of your application.

You can both apply early and take the December test - submitting the score for re-consideration during regular decision if not accepted EA.