UC Professors Overwhelmingly Support Return Of SAT and ACT

Not surprisingly, the UC faculty has determined that the temporary decision to not use standardized tests (the SAT and ACT) was an abysmal failure. The faculty overwhelmingly voted to return to the requirement of using these standardized tests after seeing the dramatic drop in quality of college applicants. You can read the article here.

Fortunately, law schools have resisted the temptation to act similarly. The vast majority of law schools continue to require the LSAT (with some law schools providing the option of substituting the GRE for the LSAT). An applicant’s LSAT score and undergraduate gpa also are the primary tools used by law schools to determine merit-based scholarships.

Law schools recognize the powerful predictive tool of LSAT scores (especially when combined with college grades) in determining expected first year law school grades. It’s good to see that colleges and Universities are coming to a similar conclusion about the value and importance of the SAT and ACT.

The failed UC experiment should serve as yet another reminder of what common sense indicates: removing proven and reliable standardized tests from the academic setting will directly lead to a decrease in the quality of student applicants.