UC and Standardized Tests
By Hardik Maheshwari
May 20, 2020 was a historical day for the University of California. On that day, the University of California’s Board members unanimously passed UC President Janet Napolitano’s proposal to remove the SAT and ACT as a requirement in the UC application. Napolitano’s plan was to implement a test optional policy for the classes of 2021 and 2022 and then go fully test blind for the classes 2023 and 2024. On September 20, 2020 another change comes to this already complicated and confusing situation. Alameda County’s Superior Court Judge Brad Seligman ruled that UC’s test-optional policy was unfair for disabled applicants because they lacked access to testing centers with special accommodations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Even though the ruling only considered disabled applicants, the ruling applied to all applicants to keep it fair for everyone.
Judge Seligman’s policy to ban SAT and ACT applied to the class of 2021, who are currently high school seniors. Current high school seniors have already submitted their UC Applications. The deadline to submit UC applications for the class of 2021 has already passed on November 30, 2020. Standardized tests were completely ignored in the UC application process for current high school seniors. CSU’s will also not be using SAT/ACT scores in admissions decisions.
The decision for UC’s to go test blind this year shook the world of college applications and raised several concerns and questions for future applicants and their parents. To test or not to test? Assuming the test center isn’t cancelled due to the pandemic it is best to take the SAT/ACT. Although many colleges have already decided that admissions will be test optional a good SAT/ACT score can boost one’s applications. UC still uses the standardized test scores for statewide guarantee admission. If a student is in the top 9 percent of California high school graduates and aren’t accepted into any of the UC campuses, they will be offered a spot on another campus depending on space availability. It is best to take the SAT/ACT even though it is test optional because it can help cover a subpar GPA and many scholarships will still use standardized test scores for entrance.
The University of California has not yet made any statement on whether it will be test blind or not for future years. However the UC board has mentioned that it will be test optional for the class of 2022 and the class of 2023 and class of 2024 will be test blind. By 2025, UC hopes to completely eliminate the SAT/ACT requirements for Californian students. The UC board team is currently in the process of creating a new UC exam for the class of 2025. UC will create an entrance exam that “better aligns with the content the University expects students to have mastered for college readiness.” There is no information on how this exam will be structured.
2020 was undisputedly one of the hardest years for college applicants. Doing college apps purely at home comes with benefits like Zoom interviews, but it all comes at a cost. Because of the testing requirements being eased to get into college, colleges saw a surge in applicants. Many colleges have already delayed regular decision dates to give themselves more time to review the large number of applicants. Because of Biden coming to office, international students saw a surge in applicants. The acceptance rates went down and more and more students are getting deferred or rejected.
Along with the standardized testing ban for the UC, College Board made a huge change regarding the SAT. On January 19, 2021 College Board announced that it will no longer offer the SAT essay and the subject tests. Subject tests and the essay have been on a decline over the past few years. Only 10% of applicants take subject tests. College Board wants to focus their resources on more meaningful things such as AP Exams. Colleges have been slowly removing them for applications and thus they became irrelevant to the point College Board completely terminated these programs. “As students and colleges adapt to new realities and changes to the college admissions process, College Board is making sure our programs adapt with them. We’re making some changes to reduce demands on students,” the organization said in a statement. The essay will still be administered for the March 13 test, but by contacting College Board it can be cancelled. SAT subject tests will automatically be refunded. The big question is whether colleges will consider these scores. This is entirely up to the colleges one applies to and what year one will apply to college.
All of these changes happened over the course of less than one year and it can be extremely difficult to process this. Students and parents are overwhelmed with the significant changes to college admissions. Parents and students have anxiety about what comes next. The only thing one can do is wait and see how admissions turns out for the Class of 2021, but based on the ED numbers it is not looking so good. UC’s will make the decision for the Class of 2022 and future years once the Class of 2021 admission cycle is over. For now all future students can do is work hard and hope for the best.
