<p>Haha I don't know if anyone has talked about this already yet but...</p>
<p>Freshman</a> Admission Requirements for Fall 2012</p>
<p>I was pretty surprised when I saw the "we don't need SAT II's anymore" part. Hmm I don't know whether to be happy or sad though. XD Anyone know why they would do this anyway? The first random reason that popped into my head was the 2012 apocalypse. =D </p>
<p>By the way, I'm high school class of 2012, so my grade will be the first to experience this. (:</p>
<p>That’s not my reading of the change. It would appear that the UCs are trying to broaden the pool of candidates by making SAT IIs optional. In some lower performing schools removing such a barrier may in fact be effective.</p>
<p>But the requirements also state:</p>
<p>“Two SAT Subject Tests will no longer be required for admission. However, students can still choose to submit their scores for consideration as part of their application, just as they do now with AP scores. The Subject Tests may also be recommended for certain majors.”</p>
<p>So if you are coming from a high performance school, and/or one with strong guidance counselors I expect that you’ll find that many of the strong applicants will be taking the SAT IIs. They’ll often be taking them anyway because many will be applying to colleges other than the UCs. You’ll need to take them to stay competitive.</p>
<p>The UCs guarantee you a “place” if you’re in the top 9% effective 2012 but they don’t say where that would be. So if you want that place to be UCLA, UCBerkeley, etc. I would think that you need to take every opportunity to make your application compelling – including high SAT II scores.</p>
<p>Oops I must’ve come off as a bit extreme when I said UC’s “don’t need SAT II’s anymore,” I guess. Yeah, most of us are still taking them of course. =P If nothing else, we’ve gotta apply to other colleges besides those in the UC system. (: </p>
<p>But I think the biggest reason why I posted this was not to examine what it meant for us as the high school class of 2012, 2013, 2014, etc but rather to examine the trend in the long long term. I read somewhere that most colleges used to require three SAT IIs: two of choice and one writing SAT, with no essay section on the SAT I. A few select colleges, including Harvard, still require 3 SAT II’s (I think? haha) but most colleges certainly don’t. So now I wonder if other colleges will gradually begin to follow UC’s example of making the SAT II optional. Alright, I’m going to offer a <em>radical</em> thought: What if the SAT II is, slowly slowly, (slowly) beginning its (slow) decline? </p>
<p>Okay, so it’s still going to be important for our generation and probably the generation after us. It’ll most likely be around for the generation after that. But, in terms of the “rise and fall” of the SAT empire, I think it’s more “falling” than “rising” at this stage. Hehe. It’s fun to analyze random stuff.</p>
<p>If i remember correctly, the UCs are doing this to “diversify its students” in terms of race and financial background perhaps as its way to combat the increasingly alarming asian student population? luckily, as a member of the class of 11, I still get to show off my sat2 scores lol. but chances are, if you are applying to the top UC schools (UCB and UCLA), you will be taking those sat2s.</p>
<p>Well the SAT IIs may indeed be losing popularity. But the trend is still for more tests. The likely pool of “optional but required” tests for selective colleges are the APs. I personally don’t think that this is a good thing, but as many high schools continue to increase the number of AP classes as well as opening up these classes to a broad group of students it is natural that colleges will want to measure the quality of these courses – and the AP exam comes forth.</p>
<p>this is new to me we have to take SAT II’s to be elligible to apply for a UC?</p>
<p>^Well um, aren’t SAT II’s are a requirement for most colleges at this point, not just UC’s?</p>