Students can change what they write in their college essay. And they may no longer be tortured by the SAT and ACT.
children of graduates? The pressure is on to stop the advantage in the entrance competition.
of Supreme Court ruling on Thursday The elimination of race-sensitive admissions is widely expected to dramatically reduce the number of black and Hispanic students at some colleges.
But the court’s decision could have other surprising consequences, as universities try to accommodate a diverse class of students while trying to comply with the law.
Personal essays become more important.
The Supreme Court emphasized that students can emphasize their racial or ethnic background in college essays.
Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr. said, “Anything in this opinion does not warrant the University’s consideration of the applicant’s discussion of how race has affected his or her life through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise. It is not prohibited to do so,” he said. I have written.
But Justice Roberts also cautioned that the essay cannot be used as a way to covertly telegraph race.
That means that the tone, intent, and subject matter of college essays can change radically.
“Students are writing about soccer practice now. They write about their grandmother dying,” University of Maryland admissions officer Shannon Gandy said in a recent paper. presentation Sponsored by the American Council on Education.
She added: “They don’t write about their trials and tribulations. They don’t write about the hardships they have had to go through.”
Fewer schools will require the SAT and ACT.
Partly because of the coronavirus pandemic, about 1,900 universities have at least temporarily dropped their standardized test requirements and moved to “test-optional” or no-test admissions.
Now some universities may remove these requirements permanently in response to criticism that the tests favor students from wealthy families.
Eliminating test scores can also protect schools from lawsuits. The fair admissions student body, plaintiff in the Supreme Court case, relied heavily on data in its lawsuit against Harvard University.
Data released by the Commission of Universities that owns the SAT reveals that students with families in the highest financial brackets score 100 points better than students in the lowest financial brackets. became. The racial disparities in test scores are even more pronounced. In 2022, white students averaged 1098 points, while black students averaged 926 points.
Like the University of California system, admissions offices may go a step further and become “test-blind,” meaning they don’t review test scores submitted by students.
The preferential treatment for the rich may end.
Most universities have long resisted scrapping controversial admissions practices that give a boost to the children of alumni, donors and faculty.
But it can be difficult now. In a concurring opinion, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch criticized Harvard for not repealing the preferential treatment.
And President Biden promised on Thursday that the Department of Education would analyze “traditional admissions and other institutional-like practices that expand privilege rather than opportunity.”
Biden is not the first Oval Office official to question the traditional admissions system. President George W. Bush, who followed his father and grandfather to Yale University, Said In 2004 he said he thought they should be eliminated.
Schools generally want to maintain these priorities as they build community and help fundraisers. Only a handful of colleges, such as Caltech, Johns Hopkins University, and Amherst College, have abandoned their colleges.
A new scale of merit, the adversity index.
After the ruling, President Biden also called for “new standards” to screen applicants. In addition to test scores and grades, he suggested schools measure “adversities students overcome.”
“Boys who faced more difficult challenges showed more grit and determination, and that should be a factor,” Biden said.
Some schools already take students’ backgrounds into account in their admissions process. The UC Davis School of Medicine evaluates applicants based on the Socioeconomic Diversity Index (SED).
Universities will be thoroughly involved in recruiting activities.
Selective universities are accustomed to the applicants who come there. From now on, more and more people will go out looking for student candidates.
The University of Virginia, for example, this month announced plans to target 40 high schools in eight parts of the state that have little track record of sending applicants.
Only 6 percent of students from the state’s most disadvantaged schools applied, according to the university’s analysis.
The University of California program could serve as a model.of program has provided academic support and college admissions advice to thousands of high school students in low-income communities.
