College Admissions' Changing Landscape: End of Affirmative Action. What will this mean for college-bound students and university admissions?
Interpreting the End of Affirmative Action for College Admissions
Dear Readers,
Last week, we witnessed the Supreme Court making a large decision on Affirmative Action that will impact students, parents, and the admissions process within universities and colleges.
In this note, we will talk about this decision made by the Supreme Court as well as preliminary thoughts on what this will mean for university admissions going forward.
We’ll continue following the conversation around this topic as well as add to its discussion. Make sure to join our email list below here.
The Context
For the past several decades, Universities have used race as an important factor to help them achieve diversity goals on their college campuses. Grades, SAT scores, and extracurricular activities are all important, and together with race and socioeconomic backgrounds, colleges attempted to consider one’s achievements in the context of his/her upbringing.
Every year, many colleges have done their best to maintain a certain percentage of the admitted class for each racial group.
This note is not about our opinion on this practice - Affirmative Action is a topic that is widely debated and we are not in a position to discuss whether it’s right or wrong.
What does Diversity actually mean?
When considering what it means to have a “diverse” admitted class, most observers would associate this with having an assortment of racial backgrounds on the college campuses.
To get a bit more specific, diversity is measured in different ways - beyond just race. Here are a few characteristics of diversity:
Where a student is from (geography)
What kind of socioeconomic background a student grew up with
What is the student’s gender
What kind of unique skills/talents does this person have
An Asian applicant who grew up in Alaska and has won fishing competitions is most likely much less commonly found in the admissions pool.
On the other hand, an Asian applicant who plays tennis or is in Computer Science club is a student profile that is often seen in the admissions pool.
By the way, there’s nothing wrong with doing what you’re interested in if that is in fact tennis or programming. It’s just it doesn’t necessarily make you more “diverse” in college admissions.
What is less common is more unique. What is more unique makes a campus more “diverse.”
How will the end of Affirmative Action affect students from different racial backgrounds
Now we enter the part of the note where it becomes our Program’s opinion on what may happen for students of different racial backgrounds. For this reason, we now enter the realm of subjectivity in this email.
There will be of course differing points of view, but we’ll do our best to share ours as objectively as possible.
The big picture impact that we expect to see in admissions over the long-term due to the Supreme Court ruling is that Universities will be forced to consider all other factors in an applicant’s profile without explicitly using race.
Sounds obvious enough right?
What this means in practice is most likely the following:
The importance of Grades just increased
Implication: The value of high grades will increase as colleges scrutinize more carefully your academic accomplishments in the context of your high school
The importance of Standardized Test Scores (SAT/ACT) has increased
Implication: The value of SAT/ACT scores just increased for students who want to put their best foot forward in the most elite admission pools in the U.S.
The importance of a family’s financial background has greatly increased
Implication: In place of race, Colleges may try to use a family’s financial background to understand whether the applicant would be a diverse addition to the campus from a socioeconomic standpoint. There will always be a place for students from underprivileged backgrounds and first-generation college students.
The importance of your individual talents and activities/involvement has increased
Implication: Individual talents, interests, and activities are what make a person unique apart from others. This part of the application profile will become more important over time as that may be a way to add to campus diversity. It may pay dividends to select activities that stand out from the crowd (and excel in those activities).
Notice that we listed out factors that we believe just became more important.
If race is now excluded as a screening factor, then all other factors become more important.
To put it simply, the Supreme Court’s ruling does not change long-standing principles of excellence.
If you put in the work, you will get rewarded
If you have progress and growth to show, you will be recognized
If you demonstrate your committment to excellence, you will eventually achieve excellence.
We believe that there has never been a better time to demonstrate objective qualities of achievement to an admissions office.
In short, if you’re doing all the right things to prepare for college admissions - double down and keep doing them.
If you’re not yet on the right track for college admissions, it’s time to get serious about those goals and start being proactive with your coursework and standardized testing.
This isn’t the last message we will send regarding Affirmative Action.
There will be more in the future to help you understand how to navigate the changing college admissions landscape going forward.
Stay tuned, and make sure to share the newsletter with your awesome network.
Feel free to read the other emails that we’ve sent out from our Substack Email List - all public: