Affirmative Action: The Effects on College Admissions This Year

The Supreme Court’s highly anticipated affirmative action decision last Thursday has effectively, but not explicitly, placed a total ban on race-conscious university admissions. So what does this mean for college admissions? Read on to find out. 

Background

This decision comes after Students for Fair Admissions, an anti-affirmative action nonprofit, challenged Harvard and the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill for discrimination against Asian American and White students in their academic decisions. This is because affirmative action has made colleges place racial quotas for institutions to meet. 

California Public College Systems Unaffected & California Private Schools Affected

California’s public college systems including University of California and California State Colleges, have banned affirmative action for nearly three decades since Proposition 209 in 1996 passed to prevent affirmative action in public employment, contracting and education. California is one of nine states that has banned race-based conscious admissions in public institutions. Michigan, Washington, and Florida are others to name a few. 

While California’s public universities remain unaffected, private universities like Stanford, California Institute of Technology, and University of Southern California, which are nearly equally as attended as the UC System, must adjust their admissions process to eliminate race-conscious decisions. According to David Grusky, the Director of the Center on Poverty and Inequality, a Senior Fellow at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research (SIEPR), “the admissions officer must now be [able] to determine an applicant’s underlying capacity to contribute to the university and society” thereby placing a larger emphasis on student personal statements. 

Predicted College Admission Responses 

Studies show that racial and ethnic diversity benefits all students, leading to increased productivity, cultural competency, and innovation. Depending on the institution, the college may choose to value diversity through alternative ways. 

• Focus on Adversity Overcome and Diversity: While colleges cannot outwardly consider race in their admissions process, they can evaluate “adversity overcome” by candidates, a tactic UC Davis utilized to become one of the most diverse medical schools in the country, despite the passing of Proposition 209. 

• Higher Emphasis on University Application Personal Statements and Supplemental Essays: Students can most readily explain their adversity through their personal statements and supplemental essays. Through these essays students can discuss their unique experiences shaped by their ethnic backgrounds, explaining their opportunities or lack thereof of extracurriculars and high school course rigor. 

• Re-Evaluating Legacy Admission Policies: Colleges will likely re-evaluate their legacy admission policies that prioritize children of alumni and donors an advantage over students without. Institutions like Harvard are now facing complaints with Black and LatinX minority groups for violating the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 for legacy and donor preferences. This trend is expected to continue across all other schools that have legacy admission policies. 

• Re-Evaluating Athletic Recruiting: Similarly, schools may re-evaluate their athletic recruiting policies that tend to favor white applicants.  

Key Takeaways

• Nine states (California, Idaho, Arizona, Florida, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Washington, and Michigan) have already banned affirmative action in their public universities. 
• Private institutions and colleges in states that have not banned affirmative action will be affected the most. 
• The predicted responses for colleges and universities are the following: focus on overcoming adversity and diversity, higher emphasis on personal statements, re-evaluation of legacy admissions policies, and re-evaluation of athletic recruiting.