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The Supreme Court ruling that selective colleges and universities cannot use race as a factor in admissions comes as the nation’s students have become increasingly diverse.
More than half are Latino, black, Asian or Native American, said Michelle Siqueiros, president of the Campaign for College Opportunity, a nonprofit group that helps Californians go to college.
“We have more eligible college-ready students than ever before,” Siqueiros said.
At the same time, black and Latino students they are still underrepresented through selective and highly selective colleges and universities, institutions where less than half of applicants or less than 20% are accepted, respectively. They are also underrepresented at major universities in many states.
We asked experts to weigh in on what the Supreme Court ruling means for students and families.
Does the ruling eliminate diversity in selective admissions to universities?
No.
While the ruling specifically focuses on prohibiting race as a factor in admissions, it does not limit institutions’ outreach, engagement, retention or termination strategies aimed at enrolling diverse student bodies, said Deborah Santiago, CEO and co-founder of Excellence in Education, an organization that promotes Latinos to finish college. “You can do all of those things in these communities,” she said.
Academics and higher education advisers say the onus falls on colleges and universities to ensure their applicant pools include students of color, many of whom come from less-resourced segregated school districts.
“One of the things that could change is really how admissions officers across the country recruit, because if you can’t account for race, the only thing you can really control is how diverse your applicant pool is,” Angel said. B. Perez. , the CEO of the National Association for College Admission Counseling.
Zamir Ben Danassistant professor of law at Temple University, said higher education institutions will be able to continue “to promote diversity based on background, socioeconomic experiences,” among other experiences.
A wide range of experiences can still define what it means to have a diverse student body, including students’ experiences, where they grew up, and their areas of interest. When it comes to social and economic diversity, having to work while in school, being raised by a single parent, going to a private high school on a scholarship, or even experiences with the family court system “are still unique experiences. that are going to shape how a student sees the world,” said Ben-Dan.
Have previous bans on racially-based admissions affected student diversity?
The short answer is yes.
Statewide bans on the use of race-based affirmative action in Arizona, California, Florida, Idaho, Michigan, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, and Washington have already given the country a taste of the consequences of banning such a practice. .
Studies show that in those nine stateshe student enrollment from underrepresented communities refusedeven if others factors such as class they weighed more.
In California, data displayed that affirmative action helped black and Latino college students.
Siqueiros saw a sharp decline in the number of black and Latino students applying to selective universities and colleges after the state banned affirmative action in the 1990s.
“There was a very real backlash from high school students who just chose not to run. There was also a drop in the number of students who applied, were admitted and chose not to enroll, compared to previous years,” said Siqueiros.
Henry Perez, 46, a Los Angeles resident who entered UCLA in 1995 and is executive director of the nonprofit InnerCity Struggle, recalls being part of “one of the last, if not the last,” classes on affirmative action in the public education system. in California.
Perez said he saw the sharp decline in students of color, particularly black and Latino students, at UCLA and the University of California system. “It was devastating – we saw diversity really go down.”
Siqueiros now worries that the same pattern could be repeated in other states after the Supreme Court ruling.
“Students are hearing a very real message about whether they belong and are welcome on campus,” Siqueiros said.
Should students of color apply to selective schools?
Absolutely, say the experts.
“It’s probably going to be more important than ever to encourage minority students and other underrepresented students to continue to apply,” said Andrew Belasco, counselor and executive director of college transitionsa company that advises students and families in the process of admission to the university and financial aid.
What is troubling about the ruling is the “chilling effect of students feeling like they don’t belong” because they are told, in one interpretation of the decision, that their identities and who they are as students of color is not an issue, Santiago said. “The question of whether or not they belong, I think it’s real.”
What’s important to note, experts say, is that race was only one factor used to determine admissions to a few select colleges and universities, along with a student’s transcript, extracurricular activities, essays, recommendations and standardized test scores for some schools.
“No college has ever used race solely to admit a student,” said Jasmin Pivaral, director of college culture for the Partnership for Los Angeles Schools. “So again, that goes back to a lot of misconceptions: There are already a lot of false narratives about how race is used in admissions.”
While the use of race as a factor in admissions has drawn opposition for years, selective colleges and universities have always used other factors that have benefited more advantaged students, such as whether the applicant’s parent attended (referred to as as inherited admission) or if the applicant went to a selective high school or boarding school.
Belasco said counselors like him are now making sure the ruling “doesn’t communicate to underrepresented minorities that they should no longer consider some colleges.”
In that context, it’s important to pay special attention to first-generation students, as well as those who identify as Black or Latino, because they are more likely to “self-select not to go to a selective school,” Eva Garza said. -Nyer, director and CEO of Texas College Counselor. “They’ll just assume ‘I don’t have a chance.'”
Studies show students of color have higher graduation rates when they attend selective collegesearn more after graduation and build stronger professional networks.
Yet the number of blacks and Latinos graduating annually from 100 highly selective colleges that presumably use race as a factor in admissions represents just 1% of all students at four-year colleges, according to an estimate by sociologist Sean Reardon of Stanford University. for The New York Times.
“What I would recommend to other counselors who are serving this population is to still encourage them to go ahead and apply,” Garza-Nyer said.
Does the ruling mean that students cannot mention race when applying?
No.
The new ruling says that a college or university cannot use race as a factor in determining whether a student should be admitted.
But students can still convey their racial or ethnic background through extracurricular activities and other application materials, such as essays and personal statements.
“If there are opportunities within the app to talk more about your identity, for example, if there were situations where your identity influenced anything, from the careers you decided to pursue or the courses you decided to take or if there were problems you faced and they overcame some form of discrimination,” Belasco said, “those are going to be important things to talk about in the context of an application if they can no longer indicate their race on an application.”
However, that advice can vary across institutions, said Ben-Dan of Temple University.
It is possible that some colleges and universities “may, at their own expense, in response to the Supreme Court’s decision, prohibit candidates from using mere race so that they can be said to have made their decisions without regard to race,” he said. .
This is what Supreme Court Opinion Declared: “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, whether through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
But they made it clear that race cannot be used as one of the deciding factors in admissions, as it has been for some colleges and universities: “But despite claims to the contrary by dissenters, universities cannot simply to establish through application essays or other means the regime that we deem illegal today,” the ruling stated.
