A Math Horror Show at UC San Diego

Remember when the University of California kicked off a trend by eliminating the SAT test as an admissions requirement five years ago? Now arrives the dispiriting result: Many freshmen at one of its top public universities can’t do middle-school math.

The University of California, San Diego, is widely considered one of the nation’s top public universities, ranking sixth in U.S. News & World Report. So a new analysis by its joint faculty-administration committee of its student preparation may reflect a broader decline in academic rigor and standards.

“Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students—particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills,” the report notes. “This trend poses serious challenges both to student success and to the university’s instructional mission.” That’s an understatement. Do college students even know what these words mean?

One in eight of UC San Diego freshmen have math skills that “fall below middle-school level,” a 30-fold increase since 2020. Yet the average high-school math GPA was an A- for students taking a middle-school remedial course. This suggests rampant grade inflation in high schools. Its effects were exacerbated by the UC Board of Regents move in May 2020 to stop requiring the SAT in the name of making admissions more equitable and improving “educational quality.”