USABO 2027: Student Registration Closes November 22

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Student registration for the 2027 USA Biolympiad (USABO) closes on November 22, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time (8:59 p.m. Pacific). Students cannot sign up on their own. They register through a school, or an authorized USABO Center, that has already registered for 2027, so the first step is asking your biology teacher whether your school is taking part.

What Is the USABO?

The USABO is the national biology olympiad for U.S. high school students, run by the nonprofit Center for Excellence in Education (CEE). It begins with an online Open Exam and leads to a Semifinal Exam, the National Finals, and selection of the four-member team that represents the U.S. at the International Biology Olympiad in Warsaw, Poland, in July 2027.

Students in grades 9 to 12 may take part. Seniors are eligible as long as they have not formally enrolled in a college or university program. To advance to the Semifinal and beyond, a student must be a U.S. citizen or permanent resident (green card holder). CEE notes that AP courses are not required to do well.

The November Deadlines

• October 23, 2026: deadline for each school to pay the $125 registration fee, which covers all of its students. This deadline has passed, and USABO does not accept teacher or student registrations from schools that did not pay by then.
• November 15, 2026: school registration closes at 11:59 p.m. ET.
• November 22, 2026: student registration closes at 11:59 p.m. ET.

USABO says no registrations will be accepted after these dates.

How Students Register

• Confirm with the school first. USABO asks students to register only after their test administrator, usually a biology teacher, confirms the school is registered for 2027.
• The student registers, not the parent. USABO states that registrations made by parents, or with a parent’s email address, will be deleted.
• Register every year. Each student receives a USABO ID number that is valid only for the current year and is used for all exams.

If Your School Is Not Participating

USABO has a “My school is not participating” request on its homepage to look for a host school, but a host school is not guaranteed and every request must be approved by USABO. As of November 11, 2026, the available host schools listed on the USABO site were in only four states (Florida, Illinois, North Carolina, and Texas), and requests were due by November 20, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Travel may be required.

Test sites are reviewed for nonprofit status and the absence of commercial conflicts such as private tutoring, so a tutoring center cannot host the exam. Home-schooled students must arrange to test at a local high school before registration closes.

2027 Exam Dates

• Open Exam: February 3, 2027, at 4 p.m. ET (1 p.m. Pacific). A 50-minute online multiple-choice exam with one answer per question and no penalty for guessing. It is proctored in person at the registered school or center.
• Semifinal Exam: March 2, 2027, at 4 p.m. ET. A 120-minute online exam for students who score in the top 10% of the Open Exam and meet the citizenship requirement.
• National Finalists announced: March 30, 2027. Twenty finalists attend the National Finals at Harvard University.

Open Exam scores are released to test administrators on February 15, 2027. Exam content follows the International Biology Olympiad’s areas, including cell biology, plant and animal anatomy and physiology, genetics and evolution, ecology, ethology, and biosystematics.

For our AP Biology classes, see our AP Biology page.

Information checked November 11, 2026.

Sources: Center for Excellence in Education (CEE), USABO 2027 Calendar, USA Biolympiad registration, Guidelines and Eligibility, About the Exams, Registration Open for 2027 USA Biolympiad (August 7, 2026).