UC numbers soar, Cal State tumbles as pandemic upends college application season

Research has found that removing standardized testing requirements increases application rates by up to 10% for the first few years, said Zachary Bleemer, a research associate at the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education. That well-known effect led UC admission officers to expect a rise in applications — but those at UC Irvine and UC Santa Cruz said they were startled by the flood that came in shortly after the system began accepting them Nov. 1. [Subscription required, you can request an electronic copy of the article by sending an email to communications@uci.edu.]