by Hannah Mushawar ‘24

Affirmative action was a pivotal process included within college admissions. It was viewed as a breakthrough in the advancement of educational equality, recognizing the unequal access to education throughout history. The June 29 Supreme Court decision on affirmative action effectively ends race-conscious admissions practices in higher education.

“Affirmative action is one way to contextualize the opportunities that a student had during their K-12 experience and the disadvantages in access to high-quality teachers and high-quality advisers that they may have had during high school,” explained Katharine Meyer, a fellow in the governance studies program for the Brown Center on Education Policy, in U.S.News.

Many college admissions officers state that they use a holistic process when looking at a applications. This includes paying attention to academic records, high school course rigor, extracurricular activities, essays, and letters of recommendation. Affirmative action practices permitted race to be another consideration. In response to the Supreme Court ruling, various colleges have responded by emphasizing their commitment to creating a diverse environment. In the summer, universities posted across social media how they are planning to move forward in order to continue promoting educational equality and diversity.

University of Maryland President Darryll J. Pines and Senior Vice President Jennifer King Rice released their statement on the ruling expressing that, “Excellence and diversity are an essential part of the Terrapin experience. To ensure our community continues to live up to these expectations, in addition to other efforts, we will multiply our recruitment efforts focused on what Maryland offers its students—a commitment to inclusive excellence where all have the opportunity to succeed. Increasing the diversity of our applicant pool can have a tremendous impact on the diversity of our student body.” Neighboring schools such as Towson University – which does not use race as a factor in its admissions decisions – have implemented other strategies over the years to enroll and retain more students of color. Boyd Bradshaw, the school’s vice president for enrollment management, released his statement that this includes going test-optional; focusing outreach in certain areas of the state, like the city of Baltimore; spending more than 50 percent of their aid on need-based grants; and having resources in place to help with the college transition.
As many Sherwood seniors will complete their applications through the Common App, it is important to know what differences will occur due to the elimination of affirmative action. The Common App partners with universities across the country. The Common App organization has stated that all member colleges are able to hide the self-disclosed race and ethnicity information from application PDF files for both first-year and transfer applications. That means when they receive an application PDF from Common App, the race and ethnicity data isn’t visible.

Though this practice is what the Common App must abide by in order to adhere to the affirmative action ban, the court ruling is vague about whether students can identify their race. For instance, should applicants personally decide to describe their experiences with race and racial identity, schools can consider such information if it is “concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university,” according to the ruling.

As it is unclear what a concrete tie to quality of character means, this opens the opportunity for students to describe the impacts of their race in their essays. For instance, a supplemental essay prompt in the 2023-24 University of Maryland application states, “Because we know that diversity benefits the educational experience of all students, the University of Maryland values diversity in all of its many forms … In a few sentences, will you please describe how you havelearned, grown, been inspired or developed skills through one or more components of diversity.” Although there may no longer be a self-disclosed race box, students have the opportunity to highlight their race in various essays, which are now increasingly important components to college applications in the US.

“Being surrounded by a diverse environment has allowed me to gain a comprehensive understanding of subjects,” said senior Lily Mosisa, “Moving forward from the ban, I hope that college campuses still embody a strong sense of diversity and that whichever school I commit to, I am surrounded by people with all types of backgrounds, varying opinions, and those who possess a strong appreciation for different perspectives – much like myself.”

As colleges such as the University of Maryland and Towson University declare their continued pursuit in creating a diverse student body, just because affirmative action is banned in college admissions, does not mean that diversity on college campuses is completely gone.