The UC system, with 285,000 students on 10 campuses, is by far the largest institution to go test-optional. By 2025, the UC hopes to develop a new test.
The UC will go “test-blind” for California students in years three and four, meaning scores will not be considered for admission even if submitted. The exams will be optional for the next two years. The ACT and College Board, which owns the SAT, argue that their exams offer a uniform and useful tool to help predict college success and that disparate test scores among students reflect inequities in access to quality education.īut the UC regents rebuffed those arguments and unanimously approved a five-year plan to phase out the testing requirement. The UC system began requiring the SAT for admissions a half-century ago, but many critics have long debated its value, expressing concern about consistent research showing that race, income and parental educational levels heavily influence the exam. On Tuesday, they asked college admissions officers to hold harmless students who can’t take it in time for application deadlines. It canceled March, May and June tests due to the pandemic, and testing officials said they may not be able to offer a test to all students who want to take it. The demand for tests - even amid coronavirus-related suspensions of the requirement at the UC, California State University and other colleges throughout the country - remains high, causing trouble for the College Board. “There are a whole lot of schools outside the UC system and a lot of them require the SAT,” said Lynda McGee, a college counselor at Downtown Magnets High School.Īdded Heather Brown, a counselor at Los Angeles High School: “If you say you don’t need the test, you’re locking the kids into one school system.” And, unless they’re disastrous, submit your scores. Like Zaldana, many college counselors haven’t much altered their advice: Keep studying. “Many of us who are passionate about the test-optional movement … think it’s going to create more access for students, make the college application process simpler and might also diversify” campuses.īut it’s far from clear how quickly such changes might come - if they do. Pérez, a vice president at Trinity College in Hartford, Conn., who is the CEO-elect of the National Assn. “This is a huge moment - an industry disrupter,” said Angel B. The recent decision by UC regents to drop the SAT and ACT requirements for admission to the nation’s premier public research university system reverberated across the nation, fueling expectations that other colleges would follow suit and strike a blow at the billion-dollar standardized testing industry.