With the Supreme Court decision, college admissions may become more subjective

At the Supreme Court decision Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who slammed racial and ethnic preferences in college admissions, had harsh words for Harvard and the University of North Carolina, calling their admissions process “elusive,” “opaque” and “immovable.”

But the court ruling against the two universities on Thursday could lead to an admissions system that is even more subjective and mysterious, as colleges try to follow the law but also admit a diverse class of students.

Officials at some universities predicted that there would be less emphasis on standardized metrics such as test scores and class rank, and more emphasis on personal qualities, told through recommendations and the application essay—the opposite of what many opponents of affirmative action had argued for hoped.

“Is it becoming more opaque? Yes, it will have to,” said Danielle Ren Holley, who is about to take over as president of Mount Holyoke College. “It’s a complex process and this advice will make it even more complicated.”

In an interview, Edward Blum, the founder and president of Students for Fair Admissions, defended what he called “standard measures” of academic qualifications, citing studies that showed test scores, grades and coursework helped determine which students would thrive in competitive schools.

He vowed to enforce the decision, saying Students for Fair Admissions and his counsel have been “closely monitoring potential changes in admissions procedures.”

“We remain vigilant and intend to file suit if universities defiantly ignore this clear ruling,” he wrote in a statement Thursday.

However, it would be nearly impossible to eliminate any mention or suggestion of race in the admissions process – starting with the applicants’ names. And in the decision, Judge Roberts specifically held the door open to consider racial or ethnic background in one’s lived experience.

“Nothing in this advisory should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of the impact of race on his or her life, whether through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise,” he wrote.

Still, he cautioned that the personal essay could not play a stealth role in telegraphing race. “In other words, the student should be treated according to his or her experiences as an individual — not based on race,” he wrote. “Many universities have been doing the opposite for too long.”

Universities, including Harvard and UNC, said Thursday they would abide by the ruling. But for outside skeptics, unraveling a university’s intentions will be a challenge. How can they know if an admissions decision was based on an essay about personal guts — or on the race of the applicant it revealed?

“I think a very plausible outcome of this will be schools just cheating and saying, ‘Let’s see who gets charged,'” said Richard Sander, a law professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, who is critical of affirmative statements. action. “The chances of an individual school being sued are slim and the cost of a lawsuit is very high.”

Some education officials have already discussed how to use the essay. In a recent presentation sponsored by the American Council on Education, Shannon Gundy, the director of undergraduate admissions at the University of Maryland, said students should modify their admissions essays to describe how race had affected their lives.

“Right now, students are writing about their soccer practice, they’re writing about their grandmother’s death,” she said, adding, “They’re not writing about their trials and tribulations.” They don’t write about the challenges they’ve had to endure.”

Colleges may also ask for other, more focused essays, along the lines of the “diversity, equity, and inclusion” statements that have become a familiar part of hiring.

Ms. Holley, the new president of Mount Holyoke, envisioned a question that would say something like, “One of Mount Holyoke College’s core values ​​is diversity of all kinds. Please tell us why you appreciate it and what you think you bring to the Mount Holyoke community in terms of diversity.

University officials predict the decision will lead to an immediate drop in the number of black and Hispanic students at selective universities, echoing the experience of California and Michigan after those states introduced affirmative action bans at their public universities years ago . Black students at the University of California, Berkeley made up just 3.4 percent of last fall’s incoming freshman class, a quarter of a century after Prohibition went into effect.

But many of the 100 or so schools that practice affirmative action have been planning for this moment for months, if not years. And they’ve already taken steps toward a “race-neutral” admissions era — one that tries to follow the letter of the law while finding ways to preserve the ethos of affirmative action.

Academic rigor is still important, but standardized testing? Not necessary, and in some cases not even read.

Schools are increasingly giving preference to high-achieving students from low-income families or to first-generation applicants—the first in their families to attend college. They put money into supporting students and provide more needs-based financial aid.

Some selective colleges will most likely also play a much more direct role in nurturing potential applicants.

For example, the University of Virginia this month announced a plan to target 40 high schools in eight regions of the state that had little history of sending applicants. Duke University has just promised full scholarships to North and South Carolina students with household incomes of $150,000 or less.

“The hardest part is really identifying and recruiting the students,” said Alison Byerly, president of Carleton College, which she said would expand its partnerships with community organizations.

The students are out there, said Colorado College president L. Song Richardson. “If we believe that talent is evenly distributed” across demographic groups, she said, “then you would expect an unbiased recruiting process to result in a diverse classroom.”

Some educators believe that California’s experience after the 1996 affirmative action ban shows that such programs can work. The UC system generally admitted the most diverse class ever in 2021. But recruiting was expensive; the price ran into the hundreds of millions of dollars, and its top campus, Berkeley, is still struggling to catch up.

The risks are different for some public universities, such as the University of North Carolina or the University of Virginia, which have already had run-ins with conservative politicians over “diversity, equity, and inclusion” policies. They will most likely proceed with caution when it comes to dark, race-neutral policies.

“One of the real moves you see in public universities is to be as apolitical as possible, in red states and in blue states,” said Gordon Gee, the president of West Virginia University. “It’s kind of a Bud Light moment,” he said, referring to the beer company’s ill-fated hiring of a transgender spokeswoman that led to a boycott.

There can also be pressure to blow up the whole process, eliminating preferences for the children of alumni and donors, who are typically white and wealthy.

So far, most schools have resisted those pleas, saying these preferences build community and help with fundraising. But with cynicism surrounding college admissions high and many believing the system is rigged for the well-to-do and well-connected, the court’s decision could force a reckoning.

“This is a major setback for racial justice, but it’s also an opportunity,” said Jerome Karabel, a UC Berkeley, historian who has studied college admissions. “Now is the time to go back to the drawing boards and see what we can do. There are a million ideas.”

Stephanie Saul reporting contributed.