At our campus, the picture is truly troubling. Between 2020 and 2025, the number of freshmen whose math placement exam results indicate they do not meet middle school standards grew nearly thirtyfold, despite almost all of these students having taken beyond the minimum UCOP- required math curriculum, and many with high grades. In the 2025 incoming class, this group constitutes roughly one-eighth of our entire entering cohort. A similarly large share of students must take additional writing courses to reach the level expected of high school graduates, though this is a figure that has not varied much over the same time span.
This PDF generated quite a few articles I read (notably The Atlantic Case for idiocracy). but essentially the college is saying ‘hey we keep admitting A students but their math fluency has been dropping’. Covid is only one piece of the puzzle.
So their solution is to build a math index to try and help shape policy, or at least shine a light where its not working.
Quote Citation: Senate-Administration Working Group on Admissions (SAWG), “https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/740347/sawg-report-on-admissions-review-docs.pdf", November 2025, https://senate.ucsd.edu/media/740347/sawg-report-on-admissions-review-docs.pdf