Underrepresented Minority Students' College Access After the University of California's Standardized Tests Suspension

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session Eighteen
  In Roundtable Session: Act Like You Know Us: Understudied and Underresearched Populations in Higher Education (Table 1)

Abstract

In May 2020, the University of California suspended the standardized tests requirement for first-year admissions in its Regents Policy 2103: Policy on Undergraduate Admissions Requirements from Fall 2021 to Spring 2025. It was developed and implemented to advance higher education equity, given the COVID-19 pandemic’s negative influence on the underrepresented minority (URM) students and students with low-socioeconomic status. From statistics of UC’s first-year admissions for Fall 2021, I found that the policy reform opened doors for more applicants but decreased the admission rates for seven out of nine UC campuses and many subgroups of the URM students. Thus, I explore the experiences and perspectives of the URM students and discuss the impact of UC’s policy reform using a phenomenological approach.

Author

• Yufei Chen, Loyola Marymount University
  Presenting Author