The End of Affirmative Action and the Future of College Admissions

Today, the Supreme Court overturned more than 40 years of case law that has consistently confirmed the legality of race-conscious admissions. In their 6-3 vote on both?Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard?and?Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina, they restricted the ability of colleges and universities to consider a student’s race or ethnicity in their review of applicants for admission.

Admissions leaders across the country have been preparing for this inevitability for years. A reversal of decades of case law that allowed for the consideration of race in a holistic admissions process will not lessen the commitment of top colleges and universities to recruiting and admitting talented students from a diverse array of backgrounds and experiences.

HOW WILL ADMISSIONS RECRUITMENT CHANGE IN LIGHT OF THIS RULING?

Before today’s Supreme Court ruling, affirmative action in college admissions had already been outlawed in nine states including California, Michigan, and Texas.

In the aftermath of California’s Proposition 209, which banned affirmative action in admissions (1996), the University of California implemented several race-neutral alternatives from outreach efforts targeted to low-income students, admissions guarantees for more students, and most recently, eliminating the use of standardized test scores. According to UC’s?amicus brief?filed to the Supreme Court last summer, these policies improved geographic diversity and increased the representation of low-income students but proved inadequate to bring racial diversity to UC’s student body that is representative of the state.?

Michigan, where voters passed a similar referendum in 2006 (Proposition 2), soon saw?dramatic drops?in the numbers of African American and Latino students enrolling. The picture in Texas is a bit more complicated. Today, public universities are required to automatically accept every Texas high school student who graduates in the top 10 percent of their class. But for UT-Austin, Texas students are automatically admitted if they are in the top 6 percent of their class and?state law requires 75 percent?of the freshman class be admitted this way. The remaining 25 percent are admitted through a traditional holistic review process. Recent research has shown, though, that the Texas top 10 percent approach?hasn’t increased access?for Black and Latino students in the state.

So, with these real-world examples in mind, how will colleges and universities – especially private institutions who don’t rely on a state to supply the lion’s share of students – alter their outreach and recruitment to continue to expand access to underrepresented minority students?

Admitting a talented and diverse class is only possible if you attract a talented and diverse applicant pool. In this respect, much groundwork has already been laid. Partnering with community organizations like Questbridge, Posse, and College Horizons provides colleges with new ways to reach talented students from underrepresented backgrounds and communities. Similarly, admissions officers have always traveled to schools and communities that are themselves very diverse but have not traditionally sent applicants their way. Eliminating barriers to admissions – like test scores and application fees (which disproportionately disadvantage minority and low-income communities) – has only accelerated post-pandemic.

CHANGES TO THE SELECTION PROCESS IN LIGHT OF THE SUPREME COURT’S RULING

The Supreme Court’s decision, coming just a few short months before the early admissions deadlines, will see full implementation with students applying for the Class of 2028 (graduating from high school in 2024). Some shifts have already taken place. As the?New York Times?reported?in May, the Common Application will give colleges the ability to mask information on how a student self-identifies when it comes to race and ethnicity, making the review process somewhat race-blind.

I say somewhat race-blind because there are many other contextual clues in a student’s application. Even without knowing which box(es) a student checks, admissions officers will have a pretty good sense of their backgrounds and cultural contexts. Among the more obvious clues are names (students and parents), languages spoken at home, cultural and heritage-themed extracurricular activities like Black, Latino, and AAPI student groups, dance forms like Indian classical, step, and folklorico, and musical ensembles like drum line, among others. Readers will have information on the demographics of students’ high schools and communities through high school profiles and the College Board’s?Landscape?program. Students, along with their teachers and counselors, may also indicate participation in minority-specific mentoring organizations like Questbridge or Prep for Prep.

Personal essays and school-specific supplements will give students plenty of opportunity to share details of their background. Interestingly, in his majority opinion, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote, “At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”

The holistic admissions process in place at top schools already allows for the consideration of how an applicant’s race affected their life in a manner similar to what the Chief Justice has articulated. Look no further than the first of the Common App’s seven essay prompts: “Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story.” Although most colleges haven’t released their?supplemental questions, here are some from last year that provide students plenty of leeway when it comes to discussing their unique backgrounds and lived experiences:

• MIT: MIT brings people with diverse backgrounds and experiences together to better the lives of others. Our students work to improve their communities in different ways, from tackling the world’s biggest challenges to being a good friend. Describe one way you have collaborated with people who are different from you to contribute to your community.
• Dartmouth: “Be yourself,” Oscar Wilde advised. “Everyone else is taken.” Introduce yourself in 200-250 words.
• University of Richmond: Richmond welcomes students from various backgrounds, perspectives, and lived experiences. What is at least one way you will contribute to our community that is not already mentioned in your application?
• NYU: NYU was founded on the belief that a student’s identity should not dictate the ability for them to access higher education. That sense of opportunity for all students, of all backgrounds, remains a part of who we are today and a critical part of what makes us a world class university. Our community embraces diversity, in all its forms, as a cornerstone of the NYU experience. We would like to better understand how your experiences would help us to shape and grow our diverse community.?
• Tufts: How have the environments or experiences of your upbringing – your family, home, neighborhood, or community – shaped the person you are today?
• Stanford: Stanford’s community is an essential part of the undergraduate experience. We come from all walks of life, share our own traditions, take care of one another, and think of ourselves as family. How do you define family and what contributions have you made to yours?
• Duke: We seek a diverse student body that embodies the wide range of human experience.?In that context, we are interested in what you’d like to share about your lived experiences and how they’ve influenced how you think of yourself.?

These kinds of prompts are designed to be broad and inclusive of all kinds of experiences and perspectives and how students answer these questions will definitely influence the way their candidacies are seen. Remember, top colleges firmly believe in diversity as central to their important educational mission. The breadth of students’ lived experiences transcends any (now masked) boxes that students might check.??

THE NEXT SHOE TO DROP?

In 2022, the?ACLU reported?that among the top 100 universities, only 27 either never used or have ended the use of legacy preferences. Although the decisions in?Students for Fair Admissions v Harvard?and?Students for Fair Admissions v University of North Carolina?focused on the use of race in admissions decisions, those 73 private colleges and universities will likely face significant pressure to end the practice of legacy preferences in admissions. Legacy preferences disproportionately advantage white and wealthy students whose parents (most commonly) are alums (typically of the undergraduate school) at the college or university to which the students now apply.

In a follow-up post, we’ll assess the state of legacy admissions and what may happen next.

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