Reviving SAT requirements won’t fix California’s university admissions problems

This week, the University of California Regents will again confront one of higher education’s most contentious questions: Should the SAT be required for undergraduate admissions? 

The New York Times Editorial Board says yes. I disagree.

The debate has been framed as a choice between fairness and academic excellence. Supporters argue that standardized tests predict college success and provide an objective measure of academic ability. Opponents counter that test scores disadvantage students from historically underrepresented and lower-income backgrounds.

Both sides make valid points. But they are arguing about the wrong problem. 

Universities keep returning to the SAT because nearly every other component of the admissions process has become less informative. Admissions committees face an increasingly difficult task. 

Fifty years ago, earning a perfect GPA often meant graduating first in one’s class. Today, grade inflation and weighted grading have made near-perfect GPAs commonplace among applicants to elite universities. 

Recommendation letters rarely mention weaknesses, forcing admissions officers to search for subtle clues that distinguish one exceptional-appearing applicant from another.

Student essays also have lost much of their value. Artificial intelligence can produce polished prose in seconds, while teachers, counselors and private consultants often help applicants revise essays repeatedly before submission. 

The result is an applicant pool in which almost everyone appears extraordinary.

Once students reach college, grade inflation becomes even more pronounced. During the 2024–25 academic year, 84% of grades issued at Harvard were ‘A’ or ‘A-,’ compared with 24% in 2005. 

Similar trends have been reported for most elite campuses, including UC Berkeley. When nearly everyone receives the highest grades, those grades lose much of their meaning.

Ironically, standardized tests remain among the few measures that consistently distinguish applicants, giving the SAT more influence than its predictive value alone would warrant.

Supporters argue that the SAT is unbiased because it predicts college performance similarly across racial and ethnic groups. But that misses a larger issue. 

Average SAT scores differ substantially across racial, ethnic and socioeconomic groups, reflecting unequal educational opportunities, family income, parental education and other advantages. As a result, increasing the weight of standardized tests inevitably changes who is admitted.

Public universities should be especially concerned, particularly at a time when political pressures and Supreme Court decisions have limited efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion. 

Californians at every income level support the UC system through their taxes. An admissions system that increasingly favors students with the greatest educational advantages risks weakening higher education’s role as a pathway to opportunity and economic mobility.

The educational costs extend beyond access. A diverse student body enriches learning by exposing future leaders to classmates with different backgrounds, cultures, languages and life experiences. These interactions enrich learning, foster critical thinking and help graduates develop the skills needed to lead effectively in an increasingly diverse society.

The answer is neither to embrace nor reject the SAT. 

Instead, universities should restore the credibility of the rest of the admissions process by addressing grade inflation, encouraging more candid recommendation letters, developing better ways to evaluate writing in the age of AI, and finding stronger measures of creativity, perseverance and intellectual curiosity.

California must also strengthen the educational pipeline. A recent UC San Diego report found that many students arrive unprepared for college-level mathematics.

Raising the importance of the SAT will not solve that problem. The lasting solution is to improve and better align high school mathematics instruction so students are prepared before they apply to college.

The Regents’ decision is about much more than whether to reinstate the SAT. The real challenge is rebuilding an admissions system in which no single test carries more weight than it deserves.