By Violet Wexler
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in a 6-3 vote to overturn affirmative action in college admissions. Affirmative Action is legally defined as “Affirmative action is defined as a set of procedures designed to; eliminate unlawful discrimination among applicants, remedy the results of such prior discrimination, and prevent such discrimination in the future.” The decision was a groundbreaking one, as it is rare that a Supreme Court overturns its own decisions, and it often makes them notable cases. While the decision was made in June, the impact is only going to start to show as the fall semester approaches. With hundreds of thousands of high school seniors submitting their college applications, what will be different this year?
The Common Application or Coalition Application (the two most common ways to submit applications to colleges) have undergone many changes since the pandemic, the most notable being testing. In 2019, 55% of colleges required standardized test scores, whereas now only 4% require them. But now, the Supreme Court’s decision has further changed the application process. The box where you must check your race on the typical application has disappeared, meaning colleges will not know one’s race while reading their application.
While a race-blind approach may initially seem the fairest, studies show that a race-conscious approach to admissions truly allows schools to be equitable. Forbes Magazine describes that “without affirmative action, racial inequities would likely worsen as more students of color get closed out of the pathways to power and prosperity that higher education brings… In the nine states where affirmative action has been overturned, admissions for white students to colleges have remained the same or increased, while admissions for students of color in some places have dropped precipitously.”
A vast majority of elite colleges have strongly disagreed with the Supreme Court’s decisions. While they are still obligated to follow the decision, schools have tried to find their own ways around it.
Many schools have implemented many more supplemental questions about identity, community, and background, giving students the opportunity to write about background and context in their life when looking at their application.
Colleges have tried to take their own initiatives to reach out to diverse identity groups as part of their admissions process. Yale University created a new diversity plan. Along with other initiatives, Yale claims it will “launch new outreach events and programs for students from rural and small-town backgrounds, expand participation in the popular Multicultural Open House, launch a program to provide travel support and overnight stays to a group of prospective students, and bring a high-impact college preparatory summer program for high-achieving students from underrepresented backgrounds.”
While colleges and universities disagree with the decision, many have been taking all of the steps they can legally to increase diversity and equity within their admissions processes. Nevertheless, this decision is still upsetting and personal to many, with 63% of Americans supporting the use of affirmative action in college admissions.
President Biden responded, in a speech, after the decision was made, “Many people wrongly believe that affirmative action allows unqualified students — unqualified students — to be admitted ahead of qualified students. This is not — this is not how college admissions work. It means understanding the particular hardships that each individual student has faced in life, including racial discrimination that individuals have faced in their own lives.”