Letters to the Editor: Tying college admission to a multiple-choice SAT makes no sense

To the editor: You can Google until your fingers get numb and you will find study after study showing that high school grade point average is a better predictor of college performance than SAT and ACT test results. (“Will UC schools drop their SAT scores requirement?” Oct. 2)

Unlike the SAT and ACT tests, high school, college and life are not multiple choice; they are infinite choice. Engineers do not report to work and simply have to choose one of five bridge spans.

Eliminating the SAT and ACT tests takes away psychological stress, reduces costs for students and removes an advantage for fat cats buying their kids’ way into college. Instead, the emphasis is on the high school students and their advisors who can work day by day to achieve good grades and know the effort is well worth their while.

College admission officers can then look at grades in various academic areas. They can also look at the high schools and perhaps give a boost to students from poor areas whose true potential may be higher than their grades suggest.

Common sense may not be that common, but here is a chance to make it more so.

Ray Stefani, Lake Forest

The writer is a professor emeritus of electric engineering at Cal State Long Beach.

..

To the editor: Once the precedent of acknowledging that there are students who don’t test well who deserve admission to the University of California system is established, we can all look forward to doctors who don’t test well practicing medicine and pilots who don’t test well flying airplanes.

Jim Stein, Redondo Beach

..

To the editor: I applaud the UC administrators for addressing the inherent inequities surrounding the current requirement for submitting SAT scores, and for recognizing that the need to change (in other words, eliminate) this requirement is an urgent one.

All children should be provided equitable opportunity to get accepted into our public universities, and SAT test preparation is not a required program in our public high school curriculum, thereby leaving countless children at a disadvantage.

Naomi Martinez, Hollywood