Every semester, instructors in the California State University system confront a discouraging and uncomfortable reality: some entering students arrive unable to perform elementary algebra or write a coherent paragraph.
In one of my courses — a General Education class that fulfills a quantitative reasoning requirement — I routinely see freshmen and sophomores struggle to calculate a basic percentage change between two whole numbers. These are not advanced mathematical skills; they are competencies most people associate with middle school math. Yet many CSU students cannot perform them reliably, nor can they clearly explain their reasoning in writing.
The result is predictable. Students become discouraged, fail courses, drop classes, or take longer to complete their degrees than expected.
Part of the reason lies in a policy decision made across the CSU system: campuses such as CSU Long Beach no longer require the SAT or ACT for first-year admission. While the test waiver began as a reasonable pandemic-era response, it has never been reinstated. In effect, CSU removed a diagnostic tool that once helped identify students who were not yet ready for college-level work.
This matters because CSU is one of the best bargains in American higher education. For a fraction of the cost of private colleges — and often far less than out-of-state public universities — CSU offers students a genuine opportunity to build skills, and increase lifetime earnings without crushing debt. But affordability only counts if students succeed and graduate. When underprepared students fail or require extra years to graduate, the bargain erodes quickly — in lost time, lost wages, and rising frustration. It is demoralizing for the students and their professors.
At CSU Long Beach, roughly one-quarter of first-year students never complete a degree. While graduation rates have improved over time, substantial skills gaps remain, and many students find themselves trapped in a cycle of excess units, repeated coursework, or eventual withdrawal.
A standardized exam like the SAT or ACT is not a perfect measure of ability, but it provides a consistent snapshot of reading, writing, and quantitative reasoning skills across thousands of high schools. Used properly, it functions as an early warning system. A low score does not mean someone lacks potential; it signals that the student may benefit from additional preparation before entering a four-year program.
California already has an effective solution for this: the community college system. Redirecting underprepared students to community colleges is not exclusion — it is smart sequencing. California’s community college–to–CSU transfer pipeline is one of the strongest in the nation. It allows students to build foundational skills at lower cost, gain confidence, and enter CSU academically prepared. A diagnostic exam helps guide students into this pathway earlier, before they accumulate debt and discouragement.
Without any meaningful diagnostic, students are told by adults they trust that they are “college-ready” without knowing whether that is true. College faculty are then forced to spend instructional time reteaching basic math and writing, which detracts from the advanced material a college course is meant to deliver. Curricula become diluted, instructors grow frustrated, and students feel embarrassed struggling with material they believe they should already know.
The consequences extend beyond the classroom. Employers expect CSU graduates to possess basic quantitative reasoning and written communication skills. When academic standards are quietly lowered to accommodate underprepared students, the harm spreads to all graduates. Degrees lose credibility, and the CSU’s reputation in the job market suffers, especially in Southern California where employers have many alternatives.
Pretending preparation gaps do not exist is not equity. Equity means providing early signals and targeted remediation, not admitting students into programs for which they are unprepared and hoping they catch up. Doing so shifts the burden onto students — in wasted time, accumulated debt, and diminished confidence — while allowing institutions to claim success, patting ourselves on the back based on enrollment alone.
The CSU system holds a public trust: to offer access to a four-year degree that employers, graduate schools, and society can rely upon. By abandoning standardized diagnostics without a viable replacement, CSU violates that trust. Reinstating the SAT or ACT — or another rigorous, systemwide assessment — does not lock students out of higher education. It gives them honest information, clearer pathways, and a better chance to succeed.
Access without readiness is not opportunity. It is a disservice. If CSU is serious about student success, affordability, and equity, it must be willing to measure preparedness — and act on what it finds.
Andrea Mays teaches economics at California State University at Long Beach. She is the author of “The Millionaire and the Bard: Henry Folger’s Obsessive Hunt for Shakespeare’s First Folio.”