Colleges Confront Alarming Math Deficiencies Among Incoming Gen Z Students
SAN DIEGO, CA – A new report from the University of California San Diego’s Workgroup on Admissions reveals a dramatic surge in the number of incoming freshmen lacking foundational math skills, sparking concerns about academic preparedness and the long-term effects of disruptions to education. The report, published in December 2024, found that 900 of the approximately 8,000 first-year students – one in eight - couldn’t meet high-school benchmarks for math, with one in twelve unable to perform middle-school level calculations.
“The picture is truly troubling,” the workgroup wrote, stating “the problem is serious and demands an immediate institutional response.”
The findings coincide with a nationwide trend of colleges maintaining test-optional or test-free admissions policies, initially adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic. While Harvard University briefly experimented with test-optional admissions, reinstating the SAT/ACT requirement for the class of 2029 after recognizing the tests’ predictive value, over 2,000 schools remain test-optional or test-free in 2025, including Duke University, Columbia University, and Vanderbilt University.
This shift in admissions criteria has drawn criticism from those who believe standardized tests provide a crucial metric for assessing academic readiness. The UCSD report suggests a correlation between the lack of required testing and the observed deficiencies. A 30-fold increase has been noted in enrolled students who can’t do fundamental high-school math.
The issue extends to elite institutions. Harvard introduced a remedial math class in 2024 for incoming students lacking “foundational skills.” experts suggest the current situation represents a broader societal pattern of accommodating perceived limitations stemming from the pandemic era, perhaps hindering students’ ability to overcome academic challenges.
