Fifteen months have passed since the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed the use of race-conscious college admissions, and several elite colleges, including Harvard, MIT, Amherst College, and the University of Virginia, have seen a significant drop in minority enrollment in the class of 2028. Commonly known as affirmative action, race-conscious admissions sought to improve educational opportunities for historically marginalized communities. With a bias toward major factors like parental income, marital status, level of education, and legacy status, incoming class demographics are skewed in favor of the elite few, and the recent overruling has made it increasingly difficult for people of lower economic classes, racial minorities, and educational backgrounds to gain admission to competitive universities.
Before the Supreme Court ruling, the schools most engaged in affirmative action were selective colleges with acceptance rates lower than twenty percent. While admission to highly-ranked schools has become increasingly competitive, affirmative action was a lazy way to integrate universities. At its best, it ensured that students of color received fair consideration for undergraduate admissions post-Brown v Board of Education. However, it simultaneously implied that minority students are expected to underperform compared to white students and, therefore, did not hold them to the same admission standards. Admissions committees thus admitted students of color to meet a diversity quota rather than admission for personal achievement, sending the message to students of color that they’re nothing more than the box they check under “racial status.”
This dissimilarity between affirmative action’s goals and realities raised complex questions about its role in improving diversity versus reinforcing harmful racial stereotypes. By perpetuating unfair systems by following racially biased assumptions, even while intending to do the opposite, affirmative action became its own worst enemy. Not only did it imply that students were only admitted for their racial status, but it also questioned the qualifications of those admitted individuals by prioritizing race over merit.
Affirmative action should have focused on how students have portrayed intellect and openness to growth in their upbringing rather than their race and financial status. The Supreme Court hoped that decreasing the importance of race would lead to more equality for all. The harsh reality is that where affirmative action has been eliminated, there has been a severe drop in minority admissions, as they often rely on race-conscious admission strategies to improve diversity in incoming first-year classes. Historically, affirmative action catered to groups considered to be marginalized or excluded, specifically women and racial minorities. Around fifty-six percent of college students attend colleges with an acceptance rate of seventy-five percent or more; affirmative action ultimately made little difference for most college students but theoretically created more racial equality in universities with lower acceptance rates. But even with affirmative action, students of color are underrepresented at elite universities. After the ruling, the number of admitted students of color at top universities will only shrink.
The University of Virginia has removed checkboxes for race and ethnicity on its Common Application, instead offering an essay prompt where prospective students can share their experiences with their identities. This change sends a nuanced message to applicants. While it suggests that the University values personal experiences and openness to growth over demographic labels, it also places a higher standard for the applicant to highlight the relevance of their background tied to their race or ethnicity. In UVA’s class of 2028, there has been a slight decrease in Asian-American enrollment, alongside a slight dip in the percentage of Black students admitted.
This raises the question of whether there are any possible mechanisms in place for the loss of affirmative action. Additionally, some colleges are reevaluating their legacy admissions policies, which prefer applicants who are children of alumni, therefore unfairly advancing already-privileged students. Some states, including Virginia, have proposed prohibiting public colleges and universities from considering legacy status in admissions. In 2021, Colorado became the first state to ban the practice. Virginia followed suit, banning legacy consideration earlier this year.
To compensate for the loss of affirmative action, the standard K-12 curriculum must be improved with a concentration on standardized testing so that more students are qualified to go to university and admitted on merit instead of a quota-based system. We must also amend the process by increasing the importance of individual statements and indications of personal growth rather than checking racial status boxes to meet certain diversity and inclusivity quotas. Discrimination still exists in America, and eliminating race-based college admissions does not change that. We cannot lose the advances toward equality made in the fifty years since affirmative action was instilled, and we must learn to thrive without it to avoid reverting to a stratified society.
The opinions expressed within this piece represent the views of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Jefferson Independent.
Leave a Reply