California’s public universities used to be known for consistently producing competent graduates, alongside a few outliers. Unfortunately, the University of California, San Diego (UCSD) seems to have compromised that reputation, possibly for the sake of political correctness. A report from UCSD’s Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions, released on November 6, highlighted the school’s significant failure in admitting academically qualified students.
The report indicated, “In the last five years, UC San Diego has seen a sharp decline in the academic preparedness of incoming first-year students, especially in their math abilities, as well as writing and language skills.”
A chart from the report showed that a substantial portion of students in remedial math as of fall 2023 struggled with basic problems. In fact, about 25% couldn’t solve a first-grade math question, and nearly 10% couldn’t add simple integers. Alarmingly, almost all remedial math students were unable to tackle an eighth-grade math problem.
According to the report, “From 2020 to 2025, the number of freshmen who fell short of middle school math standards surged nearly thirtyfold, despite most of these students having completed higher-level math courses, often with good grades. In the 2025 incoming class, this group makes up roughly one-eighth of all new students.”
The issues began emerging in the 2010s but intensified in 2020. That year, the University of California Board of Regents chose to ignore the recommendations of the Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force and decided to remove the SAT and ACT from the admissions process.
“Starting with students entering in 2021, standardized test scores were not considered in admissions. This decision aimed to widen the pool of applicants, based on concerns that standardized testing discouraged many qualified students from applying.”
Standardized tests are often criticized by those who refuse to recognize that cognitive differences exist. After UCSD abandoned standardized testing for admissions, application numbers increased by 18%.
The report notes, “The removal of standardized testing has led to greater reliance on high school GPAs, although the Task Force had previously highlighted issues of grade inflation in many schools, a problem that likely worsened during the pandemic.”
The number of students needing remedial math soared from just 32 in fall 2020 to 665 in fall 2025. The report attributes some of the university’s challenges to the COVID-19 pandemic and California’s lockdown measures, though this reasoning seems less compelling than the removal of standardized testing and the push to admit students from under-resourced schools.
The report avoids discussing racial factors in admissions, as the University of California system adheres to race-neutral policies. However, it’s suggested that admissions officers may still use indirect racial indicators, perhaps due to encouragement from state legislation.
California’s 2013 Local Control Funding Formula aimed to provide extra financial support to schools with significant percentages of students from low-income households or minority groups. This framework, described in the report, gave additional funding to schools where over 75% of students qualified for free or reduced-price meals or were English learners.
“English learners” is often viewed as an indirect indicator of Hispanic students. It wouldn’t be surprising if a notable number of minorities also represent a higher percentage of students eligible for free lunches.
The report is straightforward, stating, “Since 2016, the University of California has tracked enrollment from LCFF+ High Schools, with funding designated to support students from underrepresented minority backgrounds.”
With standardized testing out of the picture, admissions officers began employing a so-called “holistic review” process. This method takes into account a student’s GPA, personal essays, and extracurricular activities. A last name like “Garcia” or “Sandoval” could potentially benefit an applicant’s chances of acceptance, as could hailing from a financially disadvantaged area.
Interestingly, while applications from LCFF+ students increased modestly, the number admitted rose significantly. Admissions rates for LCFF+ students once lagged behind more affluent peers, but by 2024, their acceptance rate exceeded that of students from better-resourced schools.
UCSD began actively enrolling more LCFF+ students in 2022, with numbers shooting up from 894 in 2021 to about 1,800 annually in the subsequent years. This drive may be partly due to UCSD’s ambition to achieve federal recognition as a “Hispanic-serving institution (HSI).”
To qualify as an HSI, a school must have at least 25% Hispanic enrollment, and achieving this designation has been noted as a priority for UCSD, especially to gain access to specific educational grants.
However, the competencies of the admitted LCFF+ students are seemingly not on par with their non-LCFF peers. The report connects the influx of LCFF students to the pandemic, suggesting that learning deficits were more pronounced in under-resourced schools, indicating this as the source of their academic challenges.
“When UC San Diego doubled its LCFF+ enrollment during 2022-2023, the number placed into remedial math also almost doubled. By the 2025-2026 academic year, one in three LCFF+ students needed remedial math support.”
Despite these findings, UCSD seems to miss the mark, attributing academic disparities to pre-existing societal inequities while offering recommendations that lack straightforward solutions. Ironically, if they really wanted to address the issue, a simple step might be reinstating standardized testing, moving past the desire for diversity and restoring their academic reputation.
