Pronunciation increases uncertainty for high school students entering college

The teens who sought shade on Thursday as their tour groups criss-crossed the leafy Harvard Yard knew they would be among the first students to feel the impact of the Supreme Court’s ruling on race-based admission when they turned up. applied to colleges.

What they didn’t know was exactly how it would affect their chances. But many high school students said they were concerned that long-established admissions practices were giving way to something else.

“It makes me more stressed about the whole concept of college,” says Danyael Morales, 16, an upcoming senior at Boston Latin Academy, a public school in Boston.

Mr. Morales was born in the Dominican Republic, learned English as a second language and hopes to attend Columbia University to study business administration. “I’ve spent months learning how to write a college essay, and I think this will change my entire application process,” he said.

Maya McClinton, a 17-year-old Brooklyn high school student attending a summer school program at Harvard, expected the decision to come as a blow to applicants from neighborhoods like hers.

Public school students in less affluent, privileged areas already have fewer Advanced Placement classes and extracurricular options to choose from, said Ms. McClinton, who is black. Without affirmative action “to help level the playing field,” she said, she fears she and her colleagues will have an even harder time competing for the small number of openings at elite universities like Harvard.

Minhal Nazeer, 17, a high school student in Louisville, Ky., who plans to enroll in colleges including Harvard and the University of North Carolina in the fall, said she would take advantage of the college essay to help her South -Discuss Asian identity. that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in his majority opinion, said universities could consider.

“Nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race has affected the applicant’s life,” Judge Roberts wrote, “so long as that discussion is concretely related to a character quality or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the University.” However, he cautioned that universities should not use the essay’s discussion of race as a substitute for the current affirmative action system.

“I will talk about my race in my school applications,” said Ms Nazeer, whose parents immigrated from Pakistan. “And I hope they recognize that as an integral part of my identity.”

Cole Edmonds reporting contributed.