College Entrance Exams Breaking News: The UCs May Be Fully Test Blind for Fall 2021 Applicants Written by Sara Calvert-Kubromon October 30th, 2020 My passion for higher education and working with students began as a resident assistant, admissions overnight host, and study abroad enthusiast as an undergraduate student at Lewis & Clark College in Portland, Oregon. Working with high school and college students has been at the core of my professional experiences ever since. My first few years out of college included serving as an AmeriCorps member, working in public health, and teaching yoga. I later worked for the Women’s and Gender Studies Program at Boston College and subsequently served as a lead administrator of a freshman study abroad program at Northeastern University in collaboration with their admissions team. While at Northeastern, I worked with faculty, deans, students, and parents in a wide-array of academic disciplines in several countries. It was exciting to provide robust academic and cultural experiences for students all over the world as they started college before returning to Boston to pursue the rest of their degree. I most recently served as an admissions officer at my alma mater, where I recruited students of diverse academic interests primarily from the East coast, California, and Arizona, and worked with applicants from all over the United States and the world. While at Lewis & Clark I worked with deposited students taking a gap year, coordinated the college’s release of admissions decisions, served as an athletics liaison working with athletic coaches and recruits, helped oversee visit and student-interviewer programs, and managed and trained new admissions counselors. Learn More About Sara act, sat, standardized testing, standardized tests, by Sara Calvert-Kubrom, former admissions officer at Lewis & Clark College It is time for a follow-up from our September article about the California State Court preliminary injunction that could have banned the University of California system from using standardized test scores! For much of October, news about this case has been unclear because an appellate court temporarily stayed the ruling requiring the UCs to stop using the SAT or ACT in their admission process. Essentially, the UC system was still allowed to use standardized test scores in their admission process for applicants to fall 2021, with each campus given the freedom to decide if they wanted to adopt a test blind or test optional policy. This piecemeal approach left students confused and unsure of whether or not to submit scores. All of this changed on October 29, when the First District Court of Appeal in San Francisco unanimously decided to lift the stay. What does this mean? As of today, all UC campuses are barred from using standardized test scores in their admission process for fall 2021 applicants. Although the UCs could appeal this ruling, they are running out of time as the month-long window to submit the UC application opens this Sunday, November 1. Here is some additional clarity for interpreting this news: Defining the terms: Test blind = test scores will not be used (or even looked at) in the admission process. Test optional = if a student has test scores and wants to share them, the scores will be utilized in the admission process. Before October 29, the following campuses had already opted to go test blind (regardless of the court ruling): UC Berkeley UC Irvine UC Merced UC Riverside UC Santa Barbara UC Santa Cruz Although UC Davis, UCLA, and UC San Diego are still appearing as test optional on their websites, the court ruling makes me assume they will either become test blind voluntarily or that they will be blocked from using scores unless the UC system appeals the ruling. It is important to keep a close eye on these campuses’ individual office of admission websites for changes. As of the morning of October 30, the UC system had not made a press release about this topic. For families with younger students, remember that regardless of the court case, all UC campuses will be test blind for California residents by fall of 2023 as they already announced a gradual transition to remove standardized testing from the process. Related Resources Read | Posted on October 23rd, 2023 Should I Submit SAT or ACT Scores to Test Optional Schools? Read | Posted on June 15th, 2023 Standardized Testing Policies in 2023 Read | Posted on January 17th, 2023 Does Your PSAT Score Matter?
