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.
Materials for preparing for the SATs on a shelf at a Laguna Niguel book store. (Photo: David Tonelson, via Shutterstock)OPINION:As a proud first-generation American, I have a deep personal connection to the one thing that helps create opportunities for people from all backgrounds: education. When my parents immigrated to the U.S. from Colombia with limited financial resources, they understood the power that education has to change lives. Yet, the doors to my future were only truly opened when I took the PSAT/NMSQT, which helps students prepare for the SAT, qualifies them for National Merit Scholarships, and is connected with hundreds of colleges and many scholarship opportunities
The top of Sather Tower at UC Berkeley. (Photo: Guangli, via Shutterstock)The University of California is facing court challenges over its use of the SAT and ACT tests to decide student admissions.This comes as a special UC faculty group, the Standardized Testing Task Force, prepares to release its own report on the tests in early 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.
Students at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School, Los Angeles. (School photo)OPINION: College application season is upon us. This fall, I will begin my senior year of high school at Alliance Susan & Eric Smidt Technology High School and submit my application to my first-choice school, the California Institute of Technology, to study engineering. I’m excited to make my college dreams come true, after four years of hard work.