sat status

The University of California system plans to eliminate the SAT and ACT as requirements for applying to its 10 schools, but who benefits from these changes?

Answered by Quora contributor Ty Doyle, Lawyer, April 30, 2023, upvoted by Holger Müller, Physics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. [The SAT and ACT were eliminated for the 2023-2024 school year. The UC system has not figured out what it will do for 2024-2025.]

“These changes - and UC is far from unique in this - are all about race-based affirmative action, specifically the expectation that the Supreme Court will disallow its use in university admissions later this year [which happened].

“Right now, for example, Proposition 209 prevents the consideration of race in California public education. As a result, UC Berkeley’s current composition is nearly 2/5 Asian, although the state’s eligible students are only 1/5 Asian. Why? Because many Asian students do well on standardized tests like the SAT.

“College administrators want diverse incoming classes that reflect local/regional populations. To use Berkeley again, right now the Latino student population is only about half of what would be expected based on eligible in-state population (less than 20% versus 40%).

“These administrators know that if they cannot discriminate based on race, and standardized testing still plays a major role in the admissions process, then all top schools will look like Berkeley, i.e., with  ‘too many’ Asian and/or white students.

“You’re therefore seeing many universities go to more of a ‘black box’ model where the specific inputs required to gain the desired outputs are obscured.
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“Who benefits from these changes? Well, obviously, people who don’t do well on standardized tests. But really, this is about admissions offices wanting the freedom to do as they please and not have to explain themselves to students, parents, rankings services, etc.” [answer very slightly edited with no effect to content]

My take:

1. This could be a good thing because it will degrade the elite schools, where freedom of speech does not exist and 1-2% of students and teachers voted for Trump, and spread the talent around to other schools that are more sensible and trustworthy.​
2. Homeschoolers make up the majority of my parish, but they with their parents still face college. Other options include trade school, military service, or a private family business.