Once-Prestigious University Of California, San Diego, Now Admits Students Who Can’t Solve 1st Grade Math Problem

California’s public universities were once excellent at milling out mostly competent graduates (along with the requisite duds and savants). 

The University of California, San Diego (UCSD), has thrown that hard-earned reputation away for little more than woke brownie points. UCSD’s Senate-Administration Workgroup on Admissions published a report Nov. 6 detailing the school’s utter failure to admit qualified students. 

“Over the past five years, UC San Diego has experienced a steep decline in the academic preparation of its entering first-year students — particularly in mathematics, but also in writing and language skills,” the report reads.

A figure from the report illustrates the percent of students in remedial math (as of fall 2023) who could solve a given problem. 

A quarter of remedial math students can’t solve a first grade math problem. Nearly 10% of remedial math students can’t add integers. Nearly 100% of remedial math students can’t solve an eighth grade math problem. (RELATED: INGERSOLL: Universities: Can’t Read. Can’t Write. Can’t Cure Cancer. But We Can Beat Up Conservatives Real Well!)

“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 [University of California Office of The President (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.” (Emphasis not mine). 

Trouble began brewing in the 2010s, but came to a boil in 2020. That year, according to the report, the University of California Board of Regents disregarded the advice of the Academic Senate’s Standardized Testing Task Force (STTF) and voted to eliminate the SAT and ACT from admissions criteria. 

“Beginning with the cohort entering in 2021, standardized test scores were no longer used in the admissions process. The decision aimed to broaden the applicant pool, based on concerns that otherwise qualified students were deterred from applying by standardized testing requirements.”

Standardized testing is relentlessly maligned by those who refuse to accept that some people are smarter than others. And that there are concrete means of measuring that difference. 

After UCSD removed standardized testing from admissions consideration, applications shot up 18%. 

“The elimination of standardized testing resulted in more reliance on high school grades even though the STTF report notes the worrisome trend of grade inflation in many schools that had already been substantial in 2020. During COVID, grade inflation and lowered standards in California high schools likely accelerated.” 

The number of students in remedial math (Math 2) jumped from 32 in the fall of 2020 to 665 in the fall of 2025. 

The report attempts to pin some of the university’s personnel problems on COVID and California’s lockdown response. That seems a less convincing explanation than the elimination of standardized testing, as mentioned, and the “expansion of admissions from under-resourced high schools,” in the report’s words. 

The report is careful to avoid mention of racial motivations in admissions. The University of California system is legally race-neutral.

But the extent to which admissions officers use proxies for race is another matter. Universities appear incentivized to do so by the state legislature. 

“In 2013, the California state legislature introduced a supplemental funding framework for California K-12 public schools, the so-called Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The subset of California public schools in which more than 75 percent of the school’s total enrollment is composed of students who are identified as either eligible for free or reduced-price meals, or English learners, or foster youth, are eligible for additional funding through the LCFF program,” reads the report.

“English learners” is an obvious proxy for Hispanics. I would suspect some minorities enjoy overrepresentation in the comped lunch category, too. 

The report spells it out in language so plain, a UCSD student would be able to understand it. 

“[S]ince 2016, University of California tracks enrollment from LCFF+ High Schools. The 2016-17 state budget for the UC system included ‘one-time funding for support services for low-income students and students from underrepresented minority groups’. The one-time funding was intended to increase the number of applications, admissions, and enrollments from LCFF+ high schools to the UC, a contract signed by then President Michael Drake.”

“A second allocation, supporting the same legislative priority, was provided through the 2019–20 Budget Act.”

There you have it. California included funding in their state budget meant to promote enrollment of “underrepresented minorities” (presumably non-white and non-Asian applicants) in their university system. 

With standardized testing out of the way, admissions officers were free to rely on so-called “holistic review.” 

Holistic review entails readers scoring applications, taking into consideration the applicant’s GPA, essays, extracurriculars, etc. If an applicant has a last name like “Garcia” or “Sandoval,” this is conceivably a plus. Hailing from a “low income” area or school is likely also a boon to a student’s chance of admission.

The report admits that, though the number of LCFF+ applicants rose modestly between 2019 and 2024, the number of admitted LCFF+ students grew dramatically. 

“While application rates remain about 1.5 times higher among non-LCFF+ schools, admit rates during this period shifted in favor of LCFF+ applicants. In 2019, admit rates stood at 58% for LCFF+ students versus 64% systemwide for students from better-resourced schools. By 2024, those rates had reversed, with 73% for LCFF+ and 71% systemwide.” (RELATED: Laura Ingraham Presses Trump On Allowing Flood Of Chinese Students Into US)

UCSD “took the lead” in enrolling LCFF+ students beginning 2022, “with enrollment jumping from 894 in 2021 to roughly 1,800 in each of the following three years.” 

Another potential motivation for the rising tide of (presumably) Hispanic admits: UCSD desperately wants to be federally recognized as a “Hispanic-serving institution (HSI).” The HSI initiative was launched in 2018. To be designed an HSI, a school must have at least a 25% Hispanic student body. 

Becoming an HSI is one of UCSD’s “main priorities,” according to a 2021 report. HSIs are eligible for special education grants. 

So, what of these admitted “LCFF+” students? Did they prove just as competent as their non-LCFF peers, merely wanting in resources?

Not quite.

The report claims that the surge of LCFF students coincided with the pandemic, which cause “greater learning losses in under-resourced schools,” suggesting this is to blame for the students’ deficiencies. Most kids stand to benefit from a great teacher. But smart kids make do with bad teachers. Smart kids even teach themselves. 

The public high schools are mostly terribly managed and do little good.

But for those who want to blame schools for their students’ problems, Robert Putnam provides a useful reminder: “Schools do not create inequality. Schools are where inequality is revealed.” https://t.co/JmVTPkiy7K

— Lomez (@L0m3z) November 12, 2025

“When UC San Diego doubled its LCFF+ enrollees in 2022-2023, the number of students placed into Math 2 also nearly doubled, from 191 to 390 (at that time, Math 3B was not yet offered). Of that increase, 159 of the 199 additional students (80%) came from LCFF+ schools. In 2023–2024, the combined enrollment in Math 2/3B grew by another 100 students, 63 of whom came from LCFF+ schools. Although the number of LCFF+ admits declined slightly from 2022 in the following two years, their representation among underprepared students continued to grow sharply.”

By the 2025-2026 school year, 1 in 3 LCFF+ students required remedial math. 

UCSD still doesn’t get it. The report attributes disparities in academic outcomes between students up to pre-existing “societal inequities.” There’s a kernel of truth here, if one reverses the causality. (RELATED: AIDEN BUZZETTI: Stop Blaming COVID-19 For Poor Student Math And Reading Scores)

The report bemoans their “present conundrum: in order to holistically admit a diverse and representative class, we need to admit students who may be at a higher risk of not succeeding … The workgroup recognizes that there are not simple solutions but makes recommendations that attempt to find a middle ground.”

There’s a very simple solution. Reinstate standardized testing. Abandon diversity and representation. Restore what’s left of your reputation.

Follow Natalie Sandoval on X: @NatSandovalDC