In 2020, the Regents of the University of California voted to stop considering SAT scores (or ACT scores) in undergraduate admissions. A group of UC faculty have recently signed open letters calling on the Regents to reverse this decision.
UC’s renewed debate on the SAT follows decisions from a number of Ivy League institutions to return to requiring standardized test scores, after going “test optional” during the pandemic. UC, however, is a public institution, with a different mission from that of the Ivy League private universities. As the “About UC” page on the ucop.edu...
Wealthy students with high standardized test scores make up the majority of students at the most selective universities, which also spend far more on student instruction than less selective institutions. So where does that leave everyone else?
Roughly two-thirds of students at the top 50 private universities—and more than half of those at state flagships—come from families in the top income quintile.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe/Getty Images
Despite the Trump administration’s claims that some of the nation’s most selective colleges have admitted legions of...
David Gardner Chair of Higher Education, Director of the Center for Studies in Higher Education, Professor of Public Policy & Economics, Carmel P. Friesen Chair of Public Policy
Jesse Rothstein is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, where he holds the Carmel P. Friesen Chair in Public Policy and the David Pierpont Gardner Chair in Higher Education and directs the Center for Studies in Higher Education. He previously served as Chief Economist at the U.S. Department of Labor and as Senior Economist with the Council of Economic Advisers, Executive Office of the President. From 2015-2020, he was director of...
As the University of California Academic Senate deliberates whether to recommend reinstating standardized testing for freshman applicants, research from the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE) is playing a central role in the systemwide conversation.
A recent EdSource report, "UC freshmen increasingly are not ready for college math. Some professors want to require the SAT again," highlights a sharp division among UC faculty. While over 1,400 STEM faculty members have signed an open letter advocating for the return of the SAT/ACT to gauge math readiness, opponents of high-...
Tongshan Chang is Director of Institutional Research and Academic Planning at the University of California (UC) Office of the President and Consultant of UC Systemwide Academic Senate Committees on the Board of Admissions and Relations with Schools (BOARS) and Preparatory Education (UCOPE). He is SERU (Student Experience in the Research University) Senior Researcher at the Center for Studies in Higher Education at UC Berkeley, voluntarily assisting the SERU leadership and principal investigators in recruiting Chinese institutions and conducting...
She is also Guest Professor and member of the International Advisory Board of the Graduate School of Education Shanghai Jiao Tong University, a member of...
John Aubrey Douglass is Senior Research Fellow - Public Policy and Higher Education at the Center for Studies in Higher Education (CSHE), and is a faculty member in the Goldman School of Public Policy, at the University of California - Berkeley. His research focuses on the forces and politics of globalization, the future of Democracy, the role of universities in economic development and socioeconomic mobility, the student experience and institutional self-improvement, and the history of higher education. He has written extensively on the rise of neo-nationalism and the impact on...
New UC Berkeley Report Challenges Return to SAT: Calls for Public Universities to Double Down on Public Mission
Berkeley, CA – September 30, 2025 — As a number of elite “Ivy-Plus” universities have reinstated SAT and ACT requirements, a new research report by Saul Geiser, Senior Associate at UC Berkeley’s Center...
Dr. Rahul Choudaha is a Senior Researcher affiliated with the SERU Consortium. As a scholar-practitioner, Choudaha’s applied research focuses on mobility, experiences and enrollment of international students and its implications for internationalization and global engagement strategies. He has worked for nearly 15 years in global education services organizations and held cross-functional leadership roles including Executive Vice President at Studyportals and Chief Knowledge Officer at World Education Services. Choudaha is a co-founder of...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE