Freshmen arriving at UC San Diego unprepared for college-level math jumped from 0.5% to nearly 12% in five years, according to a 2025 UCSD faculty report. That finding is now at the center of a UC system-wide debate over whether to bring back the SAT for admissions.

The University of California dropped the SAT and ACT in 2020. The system is completely test-blind: admissions officers do not look at scores even if students submit them. Roughly 3,000 current and former UC professors have since signed open letters calling for the tests' return, KPBS reported Friday, Oct. 9.

UC leaders asked the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS), an Academic Senate committee, to deliver a report on standardized testing by a February deadline. The UC Academic Senate would then propose recommendations by June to the UC Board of Regents, which has final authority. Whether the regents will pursue a vote on reinstating the SAT has not been determined.

Local board acted first

The San Dieguito Union High School District board didn't wait.

On Aug. 6, trustees voted unanimously to pass a resolution urging the UC to reinstate standardized testing for STEM applicants, according to the San Diego Union-Tribune. Trustees Michael Allman and Phan Anderson drafted the measure. Five UCSD professors spoke in support at the meeting.

"Test blind admissions began as a reasonable response to COVID but it should not have become permanent," Kyle Handley, a UCSD economics professor and parent with children at Del Mar Heights and Earl Warren schools, told the board Aug. 6. He argued that removing test scores simply redirects competition toward GPA inflation and extracurriculars.

The UCSD report found that 25% of freshmen placed in remedial math had earned straight As in high school math. Across the UC system, D, F and withdrawal rates in entry-level calculus and pre-calculus courses rose from 13% to 18% since the 2021-22 school year.

Not everyone reads the data the same way. Pamela Burdman, executive director of the nonprofit Just Equations, told KPBS that UCSD appears to be an outlier. At seven of the UC's nine undergraduate campuses, no students were placed below pre-calculus. Burdman also noted that UCSD changed its placement exam in 2024, barring calculators and raising the minimum score to avoid remedial courses.

Systemwide UC data show freshman GPAs and second-year retention rates have increased since 2021, the first year under test-blind admissions.

The UC Student Association, representing 237,000 undergraduates, sent a letter to the regents in July opposing a return to the SAT, stating the tests would not produce better-prepared students. The association noted that racial and ethnic diversity at the UC increased after 2020.

Board Vice President Rimga Viskanta added language to the SDUHSD resolution acknowledging that test scores "correlate strongly with family income" and committing the district to expanding access to test preparation for all students if testing is reinstated.

Testing access also at stake

The district is also working to address a practical problem. San Dieguito high schools last served as SAT testing sites during the 2018-19 school year. Associate Superintendent Bryan Marcus said the district is aiming for fall 2027 to become a testing center again, according to the Union-Tribune.

As of September, 400 San Dieguito students had registered for the Sept. 12 SAT and 283 for the Oct. 3 sitting. Superintendent Anne Staffieri said staff would bring a data-driven plan for spring or fall 2027 at a future board meeting.

Former UC President Janet Napolitano, who led the system when the SAT was dropped, told the Chronicle of Higher Education she would be open to revisiting the policy. The BOARS committee report, expected by early 2027, will be the next milestone in a process that could affect admissions as early as fall 2028.