A new report by University of California, San Diego found freshmen are nowhere near ready for college math and writing classes.
The problem isn’t isolated to new students at the southernmost University of California campus, either. The report by the university’s Academic Senate Working Group on Admissions shows that this is a persistent problem at most UC campuses.
“Admitting large numbers of underprepared students risks harming those students and straining limited instructional resources,” the report reads. “We can only help so many students, and only when the gaps they need to overcome are within reach.”
According to the report, the number of freshmen at UC San Diego who did not meet middle-school proficiency standards in mathematics increased nearly 30 times between 2020 and 2025, despite students having taken the required high school math classes.
The report goes on to say that in 2024, two out of five students who needed to take remedial math classes also have to take remedial writing classes.
