Let’s start with the obvious: AJ Tutoring is not neutral on this topic. We help students prepare for the SAT and ACT, and we believe these tests, when used thoughtfully, can play a valuable role in college admissions.
But our support for reinstating testing at the University of California is not simply about testing. It is about academic readiness, fairness, transparency, and student success.
UC STEM Professors call return to SAT as an admissions requirment
A recent open letter from UC mathematics and STEM faculty calls on the UC Regents to reinstate the SAT/ACT mathematics requirement for applicants to STEM majors beginning with the 2027 admissions cycle. The letter argues that UC’s current test-blind admissions policy has removed an important external check on whether students are prepared for the math demands of college-level STEM work.
The timing matters. This letter follows a sobering UC San Diego Senate–Administration Workgroup report that found a steep decline in the academic preparation of entering first-year students, especially in mathematics. Between 2020 and 2025, UC San Diego reported that the number of students whose math skills fell below high school level increased nearly thirtyfold. Roughly one in eight entering students did not meet high school math standards, and roughly one in twelve did not meet middle school math standards.
That is not a small admissions wrinkle. That is a student success problem.
The SAT Is Not Perfect. But Removing It Did Not Remove Inequality.
Critics of standardized testing are right about one thing: test scores reflect unequal educational opportunity. Students from wealthier families often have access to stronger schools, more advanced coursework, more time, and more academic support, like math tutoring at AJ Tutoring.
But that is an argument for expanding access to preparation, not for eliminating measurement.
Getting rid of the SAT does not make students equally prepared. It just makes preparation gaps harder to see until students arrive on campus, enroll in calculus, chemistry, engineering, economics, or computer science, and discover that they are starting far behind the expected baseline.
The UC system currently does not consider SAT or ACT scores in admissions or scholarship decisions, though scores may still be used after enrollment for placement or eligibility purposes. That means the admissions process has lost one common academic signal across schools with very different grading standards.
Grades Alone Are Not Enough
High school GPA matters. Course rigor matters. Teacher recommendations, essays, context, and student resilience all matter.
But grades are not standardized. A grade of A in precalculus at one school may not mean the same thing as an A in precalculus at another school. UC’s own 2020 Standardized Testing Task Force noted that California high schools vary greatly in grading standards and that grade inflation has reduced the predictive power of high school GPA.
The same task force found that standardized test scores helped predict important student success outcomes, including UC GPA, retention, and completion. It also found that test scores were predictive across demographic groups and, importantly, were more predictive for underrepresented, first-generation, and low-income students.
That point is often missed. Used well, testing can help identify talented students from less-resourced schools whose grades alone may not fully communicate their readiness or potential.
Readiness Is an Equity Issue
The UC San Diego report is careful to affirm the university’s public mission. UC should serve students from all backgrounds, including students who have been underserved by their prior schooling.
But the report also makes a critical point: support capacity is not unlimited. UC can help students close gaps when those gaps are within reach. It cannot responsibly admit large numbers of students into STEM pathways while expecting professors to reteach middle school math inside college-level courses.
That is not equity. That is setting students up for frustration, delayed progress, major switching, debt, or failure.
A clear SAT or ACT math signal would not need to be the only factor in admissions. It should not be. But for STEM majors, it can serve as a basic readiness check.
The Best Argument for Testing Is Student Success
The strongest case for reinstating the SAT or ACT at UC is not that tests are flawless. It is that students deserve honest information before they enroll.
A math score can help colleges ask:
Is this student ready for the first course in the major?
Will they need summer bridge work?
Should they begin in precalculus instead of calculus?
Are they being admitted into a pathway where they have a real chance to succeed?
The UC STEM faculty letter is not asking UC to abandon holistic review. It is asking UC to restore a common external measure for STEM readiness and to give faculty a stronger role in defining academic preparation standards.
That is reasonable.
Our View
The SAT and ACT should be reinstated in UC admissions, especially for STEM applicants.
They should be used thoughtfully, contextually, and alongside GPA, coursework, school context, essays, and life experience. UC should also expand free or low-cost access to testing and preparation so that reinstating testing does not become another barrier for students with fewer resources.
But pretending the test does not exist does not make admissions fairer. It makes admissions less transparent.
A better system would acknowledge both truths: students come from unequal educational backgrounds, and colleges still need reliable ways to evaluate academic readiness.
For students applying to demanding STEM programs, readiness matters. For universities trying to maintain rigor and support student success, readiness matters. And for families trying to make good college decisions, clear signals matter.
The SAT is not the whole answer. But UC should bring it back.
