The startling report issued by UC San Diego’s Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions on Nov. 6 about the surge in unprepared freshmen at the prestigious university made national headlines — and for ample good reason.
The report documented how from 2020 to 2025, the number of incoming UCSD students who hadn’t mastered high school level math increased nearly 30-fold, comprising about 1 in 8 freshmen — with 1 in 12 not even competent at middle school math. This was the case even though the students admitted in 2024 who were found to be most in need of remedial support had average high school math GPAs of better than 3.6.
The UCSD report linked this to years of massive high school grade inflation — a direct result of many school districts’ belief that student self-esteem is more important than academic achievements — and to the UC system’s 2020 decision to eliminate use of standardized testing in the admissions process. The latter move was grounded in the view that the tests were suspect because results correlated with the race and the family wealth of those taking them — even if there was vast evidence that the test results were reliable indicators of college readiness.
The report made a basic, seemingly uncontroversial point: “Admitting large numbers of students who are profoundly underprepared risks harming the very students we hope to support, by setting them up for failure.”
Stanford, Caltech and every Ivy League university reached the same conclusion before announcing plans to again use SATs. When more than 3,000 STEM and humanities professors from across the UC system signed open letters calling for testing to be part of admissions again, the writing seemed on the wall.
But as the events this month have shown, at least some UC faculty, administrators and bureaucrats don’t agree. On July 10 — the day after a report revealing former UC President Janet Napolitano was among the many who now believed standardized tests were urgently needed — the UC system admissions board abruptly voted to rescind its timeline for a formal study of resuming SAT or ACT requirements. Board members refused to explain the decision, which has the potential to delay admission policy changes for years. But one member’s reference to “the politics of testing” being a factor was a huge tell. Standardized test results that many educators believe help reveal societal inequities — that show which students from struggling schools need specific help — are instead themselves seen as being inequitable and unacceptable.
On Tuesday, Maria Anguiano, chair of the UC Board of Regents, said she wants faculty leaders to issue a recommendation on whether UC should restore an SAT or ACT test requirement in admissions by June 2027 at the latest. But it’s hard to expect her comments to have their intended effect. What should be an obvious truth — that good intentions on equity issues aren’t good enough when the unintended consequences are so disastrous — is apparently a controversial view in some UC circles.
And who will pay the biggest price as a result? Thousands and thousands of students who got into UC only to be shamed by their placement into remedial classes.