Other UCs are tracking similar trends, but UC San Diego’s problem is “significantly worse,” the report states. Laser1987/iStock/Getty Images

The number of first-year students at the University of California, San Diego, whose math skills fall below a middle school level has increased nearly 30-fold over the past five years, according to a new report from the university’s Senate–Administration Working Group on Admissions . In the 2025 fall cohort, one in eight students placed into math below a middle school level, despite having a solid math GPA.

The number of first-year students in remedial math courses at the university surged to 390 in fall 2022, up from 32 students in fall 2020. The remedial math course was designed in 2016 and only addressed missing high school math knowledge, but

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