Background: About two months ago, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) struck down affirmative action in college admissions. Since then, U.S. colleges and universities have been eagerly awaiting guidance from the Biden administration on what this means to them. That guidance was released days ago.
On July 3rd, a racial discrimination lawsuit was filed against Harvard University based on its legacy admissions. According to the lawsuit between 2014 and 2019, students whose parents and family members were alumni were nearly six times more likely to be admitted, advantaging white students.
What has changed: The Common App, the application used by over a thousand U.S. colleges and universities, has made options for colleges and universities not to see the responses to the questions on race and ethnicity.
However, the SCOTUS ruling says that “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.”
The SCOTUS decision and the lawsuit against Harvard have led to several changes including these:
- Some colleges and universities have dropped legacy admissions, a policy that gives students related to alumni preferential treatment in admissions. For example, Virginia Tech dropped legacy admissions.
- In addition, Virginia Tech also eliminated early decision, replacing it with early action. Typically, students from financially disadvantaged families are less likely to apply Early Decision because they need to compare financial aid packages from different colleges before making their final college decision.
- Wake Forest University began offering an Early Action deadline only for students who would be the first in their families to attend college.
These changes are attempts to balance the impact of the SCOTUS ruling on the diversity of college and university student bodies.
