High schoolers prep first college applications in post-affirmative action environment

High school seniors are preparing for the first round of college applications since the Supreme Court decision nixing universities’ use of affirmative action in the process.  

In the new landscape, school counselors and advocates are urging students to find ways to take advantage of their essays to talk about their “lived experiences” after the high court in June ruled universities no longer could use a person’s race or ethnicity to help boost their application.  

The court, however, said students should be allowed to talk about their experiences with discrimination and how their personal situations have shaped who they are. 

“At the same time, as all parties agree, nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise,” Chief Justice John Roberts said in the majority opinion on the ruling.   

While not all schools used affirmative action in their admissions before that decision, many did, including most of the nation’s top universities, such as Harvard and Yale.  

“The ruling was, I think, left intentionally vague because there are still so many different ways that the universities will have to think about how do they incorporate or think about race or how do they exclude it from their admissions,” said Grace Dhanraj, an expert admissions consultant for Quad Education Group. 

While numerous schools released statements after the affirmative action case saying they are committed to diversity, some high school seniors don’t see a path forward for them, even if they shift emphasis to their essays.  

Dhanraj says she has seen high schoolers leaving out schools they are qualified for from their application pool because the lack of affirmative action makes them feel as though they don’t have a chance at admission.  

“I think the biggest issue we’re seeing is that students have kind of a philosophy where they actually could be able to attend [but don’t apply] because they don’t think that the opportunity is there for them anymore, or because they think the university doesn’t want them anymore,” Dhanraj said.

Only eight states had affirmative action banned in college admissions before the court’s decision, leaving thousands of colleges the task of revamping their admissions process and millions of high schoolers to figure out what needs to be changed in their applications.  

“For me, I’ve advised students and families to really write about their own lived experiences. So this is not necessarily new for me, but it’s certainly going to be new for a lot of colleges and a lot of high school counselors who are advising students in the application process,” said Jill Orcutt, the global lead for the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO).

Experts say even before the Supreme Court ruling, students struggled with writing about themselves in their college essays, which have now become an even more important part of the process.

“I encourage students to take advantage of those writing workshops offered by colleges and universities,” Orcutt said. “The best advice to students … is to write about themselves, to really think about their personal statements as a reflection of their own lived experience and what their goals in life are and how they think about achieving those goals.” 

Orcutt served as the associate vice chancellor for enrollment at the University of California, Merced, in a state where affirmative action in college admissions has been banned since 1996.  

She says she has seen many students over the years who are not comfortable writing about themselves, but colleges are looking for “self-reflection.” 

“For example, a lot of students want to write about their families and their parents or their grandparents attending a particular institution. I think it’s good advice for students and their families to focus on the applicant, and that means writing about their lived experience, talking about any obstacles that they may have experienced in life and what they learn from it and how they plan to utilize that experience moving forward to think about their own personal success,” she added. 

And the affirmative action case is not the only major change high schoolers have had to navigate. Many are also dealing with changing test score requirements as schools pick up or drop tests, such as the SAT and ACT.  

“I think it’s been already a tough time. I think the whiplash between all these new things such as test-optional — now having to have a LinkedIn is pretty much almost a mandatory requirement to getting in, and then also now the affirmative action decision,” Dhanraj said. “So I think students have a lot more questions without any clarity from the schools.” 

The future of the application process could be steered toward a more “holistic” approach, according to experts. 

“We’re not looking at one aspect, maybe racially or ethnically, we’re not just looking at that piece, but we’re also looking at the opportunity of experiences, the diversity of the experiences that are being had, as well as the opportunity to be inclusive, and an opportunity to be able to be equitable, to give an equitable access to those opportunities for young people,” said Tara Bellevue, vice president Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Access Strategy for NAF, a nonprofit focused on preparing high schoolers for the future.