The University of California will not, for now, move forward on a formal review of whether to restore a standardized-test requirement in admissions. The system's faculty admissions board rescinded the timeline it had set for that study, a reversal that came just before the Board of Regents met in San Francisco this week.
What changed
UC's Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools, known as BOARS, had announced last month that it would convene two faculty work groups over the coming year to examine whether to bring back the SAT or ACT and to reexamine high-school course requirements. At a meeting on Friday, the board voted to pull back that plan, and the explanatory materials that had briefly appeared on the UC website were taken down.
Standardized testing was not on the regents' formal agenda this week, though the subject was expected to come up during public comment. UC officials stressed that the review is being reworked, not abandoned: the Academic Senate said it remains committed to a study that is "thorough, evidence-based and informed by faculty expertise," while declining to commit to a new deadline.
How UC got here
UC dropped the SAT and ACT from admissions during the pandemic, first going test-optional and then test-blind, meaning scores submitted by applicants are not considered at all. The shift followed litigation and years of debate over whether the exams disadvantaged low-income students and students of color. Supporters of the change note that since UC stopped using the tests, the system has enrolled more Black, Latino and low-income students, and they argue high-school grades predict college success at least as well as test scores.
The pressure to reconsider
The renewed push comes largely from faculty. More than 2,300 UC professors signed a letter urging the university to require SAT or ACT math scores from applicants to science, technology, engineering and math programs, starting with the 2027-28 admissions cycle. They point to what they describe as a sharp decline in the math readiness of incoming students: a UC San Diego working group found the share of first-years testing below high-school math proficiency rose steeply after the tests were dropped.
Others in the university caution against reading too much into a single measure and favor alternatives. UC has floated the idea of using the Smarter Balanced exam that California public-school 11th-graders already take, which supporters say would avoid the cost and coaching gap of the SAT while still giving admissions officers a common yardstick.
What happens next
For now, the direction is uncertain. BOARS has stepped back from its timeline without setting a new one, the regents have not taken up the question directly, and the faculty who want the tests back are still waiting for a decision that could shape who gets into California's flagship public university system, and how, for years to come.
