A student grapples with the timed SAT. (Photo: Have a nice day photo, via Shutterstock)The University of California, grappling with the coronavirus pandemic, will make academic testing — such as the SAT and ACT — optional for the Fall 2020 admissions cycle. But that policy may be short-lived: Next month, the Board of Regents will meet to decide the future of standardized tests in UC admissions beyond 2020.
The life-size bronze statue of Tommy Trojan on the campus of the University of Southern California. (Photo: Kit Leonjg, via Shutterstock)It’s pretty much all there: money, celebrity, scandal, more money, cheating, coaches being bribed — advantage layered over advantage. In what federal law enforcement officials say is the “largest college admissions scam ever prosecuted by the Department of Justice,” federal prosecutors have accused dozens of wealthy parents of making at least $25 million in illegal payments in one form or another to get their unqualified children into select colleges.