University of California system eliminates SAT,
Post# of 51153
some grade requirements for admissions
< >
The University of California school system Wednesday announced it will temporarily eliminate some admissions requirements for prospective students weeks after high schools across the country closed due to the coronavirus.
The temporary changes at the UC’s nine undergraduate campuses include removing SAT scores and letter grades for required courses as part of the admissions process.
UC President Janet Napolitano called the outbreak a “disaster of historic proportions.”
She said the university’s “flexibility” at this crucial time will make sure potential students get a fair shot “no matter their current challenges.”
As many prospective students are being homeschooled until the end of the year amid the pandemic, standardized test exams have been postponed or canceled and many high school classes are now pass/fail, UC wrote in a statement.
SAT and ACT college tests canceled due to coronavirus fears has students worried
John A. Pérez, chair of the Board of Regents, the governing board for UC, said the school wants to alleviate the "tremendous disruption and anxiety that is already overwhelming prospective students due to COVID-19."
Students can still submit standardized test scores, which can count toward state eligibility within the system and satisfy some graduation requirements, Napolitano said, according to The Los Angeles Times.
“The goal of these changes is to ensure a fair process that does not affect the life chances of students who, but for the coronavirus pandemic, would have become full-time students at the University of California,” Kum-Kum Bhavnani, chair of the Academic Senate, said in the statement.