Counselor Edition: What The Supreme Court's Decision Means For Students Applying To College.
Sean Kennedy, Co-Director College Counseling at Ravenscroft School Offers Guidance
The Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action (AA) in College Admissions came down on June 29, 2023.
On my Podcast, I caught up with Sean Kennedy, Co-Director of College Counseling at Ravenscroft School, to get his guidance on the Supreme Court ruling, and what it means for high school students.
Here are the key takeaways from the Podcast:
1.Overview of the Supreme Court Ruling
What It Covers
The Supreme Court's decision significantly altered the way in which colleges and universities may approach how they engage, welcome and consider students of variety of identities in the admission process.
Universities may not consider an applicant's racial status alone as one of the holistic admission factors in admissions to attempt to advance the benefits of diversity in their institution.
Although Harvard and UNC Chapel Hill were the universities involved in the lawsuits, this ruling applies to all Higher Ed institutions.
While the colleges cannot consider race alone, according to the majority opinion by Chief Justice Roberts “colleges may consider an applicant's discussion of how race has impacted his or her life.”
What It Does Not Cover
The court did not address the application of Affirmative Action in the following areas:
Financial Aid or Scholarships;
They did not address outreach and recruitment programs, some of which may be aligned to diversity efforts;
Pipeline and pathways programs that colleges have established, were not discussed or addressed data collection, and
Race neutral strategies like considering socio economic status of an applicant.
2.Colleges Will Continue to Be Diverse
The most important thing, particularly for the students, and parents and guardians and families is that, Supreme Court ruling nothwithstanding, the interest in diversity among colleges, universities has not gone.
The students of all racial, ethnic, and all identities are still very, very much valued by colleges and universities.
3.How Should Students Deal With Information About Race on the College Application?
Sean shared that a parent contacted him after the SC decision asking if his child would be breaking the law, if they disclosed their race, since it’s against the law for colleges to consider race as a factor.
“I don’t want to break the law”, the parent said.
The fact is that students can talk about their identity and, how it's tied to experiences, and the skills and personal qualities they've developed - things that students are already writing about.
Based on some of the initial analysis, they should be able to continue to write about, and that colleges will be able to consider.
For instance, a student who identifies as Black, can check that box on the application.
The college, based on the Ruling will not be able to use that, as a factor exclusively on its own;
However, if the student chooses to discuss how that identity contributed to the founding of their Black student union group at their high school and the leadership, they develop to that experience, that would be both permissible for the student to discuss in an in an essay, and for the college to consider;
If the same student talked about the resilience they developed, being an underrepresented minority student in their school or their community, is also permissible, or
If a student chose to write about how their character traits that they've developed as a student of color, and how those aligned to the college's mission, is also permissible!
However, what information colleges will be able to consider, is far more nuanced.
For example, colleges will to have to make very specific decisions about the information they collect, and the whether they choose to suppress that information in certain places within their evaluation process.
4.The SC Decision seems to Impact Selective Colleges. Should Students Factor This As They Make a List of Colleges to Apply To?
It's important to remember that Every College regardless of their selectivity is impacted.
As students are looking at the application this legal decision alone should not dissuade a student from considering any university, regardless of its selectivity.
Every student should discuss with their counselor, or advisor, what each University's application asks of them, and what opportunities those applications provide them to discuss their identity and context, their racial identity in the context of, again, experiences, skills, qualities and character traits.
More selective universities often have additional supplemental questions and essay prompts that they require, or provide as optional opportunities for students to provide more than just maybe the main common app essay, or the main personal statement that's required.
Students will have some decisions to make about what else they provide - where they want to discuss and disclose their racial identity, or do they want to talk about something else.
It is important to pause and figure out how to respond to this - “Do you feel comfortable discussing your identity in a given space, or just talk about an academic area of interest, or about the club you lead, not specifically tying it to their identity at all!”
Again, a student should not avoid applying to a school, just because the calculus of selectivity may have changed a little bit.
5.Students - Focus on the Application Basics
Look at the opportunities that a college provides you to
Discuss who you are,
Talk about what you've done;
Share what your goals are.
If they give you an opportunity to talk about how you'll contribute to the university community, in supplements and other prompts as they come out,
Students should focus their time and attention on crafting meaningful and impactful statements that help each university in their own way, learn more about the applicant.
And the Universities can do the very best they can, within the recently limited parameters related to race they have available to them.
Hope you found this discussion helpful as you embark on your college process.
Listen to the Podcast with Sean Kennedy About The Supreme Court Decision on Race in College Admissions. (18-Minute Listen).
All the Best!
Thank You to All for supporting the Podcast and this Newsletter, and to all My Guests who have been generous with their time and counsel on my podcasts.
Have a Wonderful August!
Venkat