Standardized tests, primarily the SAT and ACT, are taken by millions of students every year in preparation for college admissions, which have historically used those scores to evaluate academic performance due to differences in curricula and grading systems between the thousands of school districts in the country. Over the past decade, however, many of the most prominent universities, such as the ones in the Ivy League and University of California system, have dropped the requirement for standardized test scores to be submitted with applications. These decisions have widely been made out of a desire to increase diversity of admitted students and admission of “underrepresented” demographics. These goals fall under the guise of promoting equity and reducing inequality, which is unsurprising given the heavy lean of university staff and educators towards left wing causes and the Democratic Party. The price of what they consider fairness, however, is an erosion of academic merit being celebrated. 

Recently, hundreds of professors at the University of California system have demanded a reinstatement of standardized testing requirements for applications. This comes amid a surge in the fraction of incoming students who have skills in mathematics lower than a high school level, along with applicants’ increasing use of AI in preparing their admissions essays, and rampant grade inflation on high school transcripts. At a time where student performance in grade schools is on the decline, admissions officers should be more wary than ever about these methods that have let countless students graduate with qualifications that would not have been acceptable ten years ago. As a result, even before the professors’ statement, several prominent universities have been reinstating standardized test score requirements, due to said scores not only being a more reliable predictor of their high school grades, but also their performance after being admitted. And when many of these admitted students are having to complete remedial courses in subjects that they didn’t actually master in high school, university budgets will only become even more constrained.

Only three years ago did the Supreme Court strike down race-based affirmative action in college admissions. The current Trump administration has also scaled back DEI initiatives in public sector hiring, and has directed many universities to do the same in order to receive federal funding. Ultimately, the return to pure merit-based admissions has gained momentum in recent years, and appears likely to reach even progressive states like California.

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