affirmative action essay

The Case for Affirmative Action

• Posted July 11, 2018
• By Leah Shafer

For decades, affirmative action has been a deeply integral — and deeply debated — aspect of college admissions in the United States. The idea that colleges can (and in some cases, should) consider race as a factor in whom they decide to admit has been welcomed by many as a solution to racial inequities and divides. But others have dismissed the policy as outdated in our current climate, and at times scorned it as a form of reverse racial discrimination.

That latter stance gained a much stronger footing last week when the Departments of Education and Justice officially withdrew Obama-era guidance on affirmative action, signaling that the Trump administration stands behind race-blind admissions practices.

We spoke with Natasha Warikoo , an expert on the connection between college admissions and racial diversity, about what affirmative action has accomplished in the past 50 years, and whether this shift in guidance will severely affect admissions policies in the years to come. We share her perspectives here.

The purpose of affirmative action:

Affirmative action was developed in the 1960s to address racial inequality and racial exclusion in American society. Colleges and universities wanted to be seen as forward-thinking on issues of race.

Then, in the late 1970s, affirmative action went to the United States Supreme Court. There, the only justification accepted, by Justice Powell, was the compelling state interest in a diverse student body in which everyone benefits from a range of perspectives in the classroom.

Today, when colleges talk about affirmative action, they rarely mention the issue of inequality, or even of a diverse leadership. Instead, they focus on the need for a diverse student body in which everyone benefits from a range of perspectives in the classroom.

Colleges have fully taken on this justification — to the point that, today, they rarely mention the issue of inequality, or even of a diverse leadership, perhaps because they’re worried about getting sued. But this justification leads to what I call in my book a “ diversity bargain ,” in that many white students see the purpose of affirmative action as to benefit them , through a diverse learning environment. This justification, which ignored equity, leads to some unexpected, troubling expectations on the part of white students.

What affirmative action has accomplished in terms of diversity on college campuses:

William Bowen and Derek Bok’s classic book The Shape of the River systematically looks at the impact of affirmative action by exploring decades of data from a group of selective colleges. They find that black students who probably benefited from affirmative action — because their achievement data is lower than the average student at their colleges — do better in the long-run than their peers who went to lower-status universities and probably did not benefit from affirmative action. The ones who benefited are more likely to graduate college and to earn professional degrees, and they have higher incomes.

So affirmative action acts as an engine for social mobility for its direct beneficiaries. This in turn leads to a more diverse leadership, which you can see steadily growing in the United States.

But what about other students — whites and those from a higher economic background? Decades of research in higher education show that classmates of the direct beneficiaries also benefit. These students have more positive racial attitudes toward racial minorities, they report greater cognitive capacities, they even seem to participate more civically when they leave college.

None of these changes would have happened without affirmative action. States that have banned affirmative action can show us that. California, for example, banned affirmative action in the late 1990s, and at the University of California, Berkeley, the percentage of black undergraduates has fallen from 6 percent in 1980 to only 3 percent in 2017 . 

Decades of research in higher education show that classmates of the direct beneficiaries of affirmative also benefit. They have more positive racial attitudes toward racial minorities, they report greater cognitive capacities, they even seem to participate more civically when they leave college.

What the Trump administration's reversal of guidance on affirmative action means for admissions practices:

The guidance is simply guidance — it’s not legally binding. It indicates what the administration thinks, and how it might act. In that sense, this guidance is not surprising — many would have guessed that Trump and his team believe universities should avoid taking race into consideration in admissions. Indeed, the Department of Justice under Trump last summer already reopened a case filed under the Obama administration claiming racial discrimination in college admissions.

I hope that colleges and universities will stand behind affirmative action, given its many benefits. The U.S. Supreme Court has decided in favor of affirmative action multiple times — it is settled law.

However — the decision in Fisher v. Texas made clear that colleges would no longer be afforded good faith understanding that they have tried all other race-neutral alternatives before turning to affirmative action. In other words, if asked in court, colleges need to be able to show that they tried all other race-neutral alternatives to creating a diverse student body, and those alternatives failed. This means that affirmative action has already been “narrowly tailored” to the “compelling state interest” of a diverse student body — required by anti-discrimination laws. Ironically, race-based decisions come under scrutiny because of anti-discrimination laws designed to protect racial minorities; these laws are now being used to make claims about supposed anti-white discrimination when policies attempt to address racial inequality.

Additional Resources

• Read our 2016 Q+A with Warikoo following the Fisher v. Texas decision
• Listen to Warikoo discuss the Trump administration's reversal on a recent WBUR interview
• More background on the Trump administration's policy shift on affirmative action.

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. (AP Video: Noreen Nasir)

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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Hillary Amofa, laughs as she participates in a team building game with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa, second from left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, stands for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

*Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa, left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa sits for a portrait after her step team practice at Lincoln Park High School Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action . The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WONDERING IF SCHOOLS ‘EXPECT A SOB STORY’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. ... I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

A RULING PROMPTS PIVOTS ON ESSAY TOPICS

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process . They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

Max Decker reads his college essay on his experience with a leadership group for young Black men. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

SPELLING OUT THE IMPACT OF RACE

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black .

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University, and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WILL SCHOOLS LOSE RACIAL DIVERSITY?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

Hillary Amofa reads her college essay on embracing her natural hair. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair . She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

How to Talk About Race on College Applications, According to Admissions Experts

R afael Figueroa, dean of college guidance at Albuquerque Academy, was in the middle of tutoring Native American and Native Hawaiian students on how to write college application essays when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the race-conscious college admissions processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are unconstitutional .

Earlier in the week, he told the students that they shouldn’t feel like they need to talk about their ethnicity in their essays. But after the June 29 Supreme Court ruling , he backtracked. “If I told you that you didn’t have to write about your native or cultural identity, you need to get ready to do another supplemental essay” on it or prepare a story that can fit into short answer questions, he says he told them.

For high school seniors of color applying to colleges in the coming years, the essay and short answer sections will take on newfound importance. Chief Justice John Roberts suggested as much when he wrote in his majority opinion, “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.” That “discussion” is usually in an essay, and many colleges have additional short-answer questions that allow students to expand more on their background and where they grew up.

“The essay is going to take up a lot more space than maybe it has in the past because people are going to be really trying to understand who this person is that is going to come into our community,” says Timothy Fields, senior associate dean of undergraduate admission at Emory University.

Now, college admissions officers are trying to figure out how to advise high schoolers on their application materials to give them the best chance to showcase their background under the new rules, which will no longer allow colleges or universities to use race as an explicit factor in admissions decisions .

Shereem Herndon-Brown, who co-wrote The Black Family’s Guide to College Admissions with Fields, says students of color can convey their racial and ethnic backgrounds by writing about their families and their upbringing. “I’ve worked with students for years who have written amazing essays about how they spend Yom Kippur with their family, which clearly signals to a college that they are Jewish—how they listened to the conversations from their grandfather about escaping parts of Europe… Their international or immigrant story comes through whether it’s from the Holocaust or Croatia or the Ukraine. These are stories that kind of smack colleges in the face about culture.”

“Right now, we’re asking Black and brown kids to smack colleges in the face about being Black and brown,” he continues. “And, admittedly, I am mixed about the necessity to do it. But I think the only way to do it is through writing.”

Read More: The ‘Infamous 96’ Know Firsthand What Happens When Affirmative Action Is Banned

Students of color who are involved in extracurriculars that are related to diversity efforts should talk about those prominently in their college essays, other experts say. Maude Bond, director of college counseling at Cate School in Santa Barbara County, California, cites one recent applicant she counseled who wrote her college essay about an internship with an anti-racism group and how it helped her highlight the experiences of Asian American Pacific Islanders in the area.

Bond also says there are plenty of ways for people of color to emphasize their resilience and describe the character traits they learned from overcoming adversity: “Living in a society where you’re navigating racism every day makes you very compassionate.” she says. “It gives you a different sense of empathy and understanding. Not having the same resources as people that you grow up with makes you more creative and innovative.” These, she argues, are characteristics students should highlight in their personal essays.

Adam Nguyen, a former Columbia University admissions officer who now counsels college applicants via his firm Ivy Link, will also encourage students of color to ask their teachers and college guidance counselors to hint at their race or ethnicity in their recommendation letters. “That’s where they could talk about your racial background,” Nguyen says. “Just because you can’t see what’s written doesn’t mean you can’t influence how or what is said about you.”

Yet as the essay portions of college applications gain more importance, the process of reading applications will take a lot longer, raising the question of whether college admissions offices have enough staffers to get through the applications. “There are not enough admission officers in the industry to read that way,” says Michael Pina, director of admission at the University of Richmond.

That could make it even more difficult for students to get the individual attention required to gain acceptance to the most elite colleges. Multiple college admissions experts say college-bound students will need to apply to a broader range of schools. “You should still apply to those 1% of colleges…but you should think about the places that are producing high-quality graduates that are less selective,” says Pina.

One thing more Black students should consider, Fields argues, is applying to historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). (In fact, Fields, a graduate of Morehouse College, claims that may now be “necessary” for some students.) “There’s something to be said, for a Black person to be in a majority environment someplace that they are celebrated, not tolerated,” Fields says. “There’s something to be said about being in an environment where you don’t have to justify why you’re here.”

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Affirmative Action in America Thesis

Introduction and thesis statement.

Affirmative action is a strategy in America that seeks to address precedent discrimination via dynamic measures to make certain that opportunities in employment and education are equal. Some of the steps of affirmative action in America have been met with remarkable controversies. Of late, the advantages of a race-based admittance plan in higher learning institutions, in America, is under scrutiny (Tomasson 235). This paper will discuss whether affirmative action has mended the racial discrimination that has cursed America for years, or it has created the same environment that it tries to eradicate.

Opposition Point 1

While the role of affirmative action is too overt racial discrimination in America, it at the same time creates the same atmosphere that it tries to eradicate. Affirmative action is presently a technique that business organizations and academic institutions in America employ to admit minorities. In America, affirmative action has enhanced the learning and employment opportunities of minorities, especially blacks. This is through outstanding treatment in job recruitment, college admittance, donation of regime contracts, and the distribution of other social remunerations. The Native Americans have a feeling that this affirmative action is only a system of predilection in reverse. They further assert that affirmative action does nothing to solve the troubles facing them (Skrentny 305) (a).

Rebuttal of Opposition Point 1

Affirmative action boosts disadvantaged children in society. These normally come from poor families and have low chances of admission to private schools. These marginal students are capable of performing the same as the Americans, but due to financial constraints, then their qualifications become different. Affirmative action in this case balances the playing field (Tomasson 235).

Opposition Point 2

Affirmative action has led to reverse discrimination, particularly among male Caucasians. It assists and harms Americans simultaneously. Leaders of civil rights institutions still trust that even in the presence of affirmative action, racial discrimination is still well established in America. While America has progressed in the termination of racial discrimination, the natives are still not obtaining the amount of finance they ought to (Sather 143).

Rebuttal of Opposition Point 2

Affirmative action brings the minorities to study and work in areas that they may have never thought of. It makes black Americans be considered capable just like the white Americans (Herring 16).

If affirmative action was to solve the problem of racial discrimination, then it should have devoted itself to the education system in areas with low incomes so that they can get the chance for employment and education. The black Americans in the US are still inexperienced in certain fundamental things and appear to have difficulties in speaking classic English. They, however, are given opportunities when it comes to education and employment. In reality, affirmative action is the leading cause of racial discrimination. Opportunities that have been created for black Americans are taken away from white Americans. The dedication the Americans have put in all their undertakings has been voided to generate opportunities for persons with distinct skin color. Higher learning institutions are now using race as the crucial factor in admission (Fischer 42).

Additional Point

Affirmative action has deprived some Americans of the key to open the door to a brilliant future. This has led to a lot of controversy about affirmative action. This is evident in a case by the name University of California v. Bakke. Minorities are admitted to schools even if they have lower grades compared to the natives. These minorities do not also do well in their interviews but are given chances at the expense of the white Americans. They, therefore, are mainly accepted because they are blacks and the institutions need to create more student diversity. Through this, affirmative action has created reverse discrimination by reserving posts only for black Americans. Affirmative action, therefore, creates the same environment that it tries to eradicate by letting race be used as a feature in admission practices in learning institutions (Skrentny 305) (b).

Affirmative action in America has closed the openings of a better future for the natives. It is, therefore, ironic to say that affirmative action was developed to solve racial discrimination since it has in turn created reverse discrimination. It, therefore, is not the ideal tool to solve the problem of racial discrimination. It is not the right response for the creation of a better America (Bean 188).

Bean, Jonathan. Big government and affirmative action: the scandalous history of the Small Business Administration. Lexington: Univ. Press of Kentucky, 2001. Print

Fischer, Katharina. Advantages and Controversy of US “Affirmative Action” Concerning African – Americans. München: GRIN Verlag, 2010. Print

Herring, Cedric. Affirmative action in America: a provisional assessment of who benefits and who sacrifices. Urbana: University of Illinois, 1992. Print

Sather, Trevor. Pros and Cons: a Debater’s Handbook . Routledge: Routledge publishers, 1999. Print

Skrentny, David. (a). Color lines: affirmative action, immigration, and civil rights options for America. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 2001. Print

Skrentny, David. (b). The ironies of affirmative action: politics, culture, and justice in America. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1997. Print

Tomasson, Richard. Affirmative action: the pros and cons of policy and practice. United States: Rowman & Littlefield, 2001. Print

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IvyPanda . 2022. "Affirmative Action in America." May 31, 2022. https://ivypanda.com/essays/affirmative-action-in-america/.

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Home — Essay Samples — Social Issues — Affirmative Action — Affirmative Action Pros And Cons

Affirmative Action Pros and Cons

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Published: Mar 19, 2024

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Introduction:, pros of affirmative action:, cons of affirmative action:, conclusion:.

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Should college essays touch on race? Some say affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

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When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education , it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Supreme Court strikes down race-based affirmative action in college admissions

In another major reversal, the Supreme Court forbids the use of race as an admissions factor at colleges and universities.

June 29, 2023

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote that universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds.

Post-affirmative action, Asian American families are more stressed than ever about college admissions

Parents who didn’t grow up in the American system, and who may have moved to the U.S. in large part for their children’s education, feel desperate and in-the-dark. Some shell out tens of thousands of dollars for consultants as early as junior high.

Nov. 26, 2023

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, his first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child. Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “I wrestled with that a lot.”

Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and being made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Ore., had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

‘We’re really worried’: What do colleges do now after affirmative action ruling?

The Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action has triggered angst on campuses about how to promote diversity without considering race in admissions decisions.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word Is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word Is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” wrote Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane in New Orleans because of the region’s diversity.

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

A lot of what you’ve heard about affirmative action is wrong

Debate leading up to the Supreme Court’s decision has stirred up plenty of misconceptions. We break down the myths and explain the reality.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said. Her final essay describes how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“Criticism will persist,” she wrote “but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Collin Binkley, Annie Ma and Noreen Nasir write for the Associated Press. Binkley and Nasir reported from Chicago and Ma from Portland, Ore.

More to Read

Editorial: Early decision admissions for college unfairly favor wealthy students

Jan. 4, 2024

HBCUs brace for flood of applications after Supreme Court affirmative action decision

Sept. 22, 2023

Opinion: In a post-affirmative action world, employers should learn from California’s experience

Sept. 16, 2023

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Here's what happened when affirmative action ended at California public colleges

Emma Bowman

University at California Los Angeles is just starting to catch up to the diversity numbers it saw before an affirmative action ban took effect in 1998, according to a university official. Students walk past Royce Hall at the UCLA campus. Jae C. Hong/AP hide caption

University at California Los Angeles is just starting to catch up to the diversity numbers it saw before an affirmative action ban took effect in 1998, according to a university official. Students walk past Royce Hall at the UCLA campus.

For decades, the question of affirmative action — whether colleges should consider race when deciding which students to admit — has been the subject of national debate.

And as the nation's highest court has grown more conservative in recent years, court-watchers wondered if it would reverse decades-old precedents allowing affirmative action.

This week, it happened: The Supreme Court struck down race-based admissions practices at public and private universities and colleges.

Supreme Court justices ruled that the admissions policies at the University of North Carolina, one of the country's oldest public universities, and Harvard University, the country's oldest private university, violated the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

As college admissions offices prepare to tailor their policies to the Supreme Court ruling, California offers lessons on what may be in store for the rest of the country.

Here's the upshot: A quarter-century after California banned race-based admissions at public universities, school officials say they haven't been able to meet their diversity and equity goals — despite more than a half billion dollars spent on outreach and alternative admissions standards.

In an amicus brief sent to the Supreme Court in support of Harvard and UNC's race-based admissions programs, University of California chancellors said that years of crafting alternative race-neutral policies have fallen short.

"Those programs have enabled UC to make significant gains in its system-wide diversity," the brief said. "Yet despite its extensive efforts, UC struggles to enroll a student body that is sufficiently racially diverse to attain the educational benefits of diversity."

The shortfall is especially apparent at the system's most selective schools, the university leaders said.

An affirmative action ban first caused a huge drop in diversity at top California universities

In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 209, an affirmative action ban at public universities in the state. Before the ban, UC Berkeley and UCLA were roughly representative of the California high school graduate population who were eligible for enrollment at universities, according to Zachary Bleemer, an economist at Princeton University.

The ban first took effect with the incoming class of '98. Subsequently, diversity plummeted at UC's most competitive campuses. That year, enrollment among Black and Latino students at UCLA and UC Berkeley fell by 40% , according to a 2020 study by Bleemer. As a result of the ban, Bleemer found that Black and Latino students who might have gotten into those two top schools enrolled at less competitive campuses.

"Black and Hispanic students saw substantially poorer long-run labor market prospects as a result of losing access to these very selective universities," Bleemer told NPR . "But there was no commensurate gain in long-run outcomes for the white and Asian students who took their place."

Black and Latino students were also less likely to earn graduate degrees or enter lucrative STEM fields.

"If you follow them into the labor market, for the subsequent 15 or 20 years, they're earning about 5% lower wages than they would have earned if they'd had access to more selective universities under affirmative action," Bleemer said.

The ban has in fact acted as a deterrent to prospective Black and Latino students, Bleemer said. His study found that high-performing minority students were subsequently discouraged from applying to schools where minority students were underrepresented.

"Most do not want to attend a university where there's not a critical mass of same race peers," said Mitchell Chang, the associate vice chancellor of equity, diversity and inclusion at UCLA. That's because attending a school made less diverse by an affirmative action ban, "puts them at greater risk of being stereotyped and being isolated," he said.

These findings "provide the first causal evidence that banning affirmative action exacerbates socioeconomic inequities," Bleemer's study said.

A learning curve

Faced with plummeting minority enrollment, admissions offices began a years-long effort to figure out ways to get their numbers back up.

Admissions offices pivoted to a more holistic approach, looking beyond grades and test scores. Starting in the early 2000s, the UC system implemented a couple of initiatives to increase diversity: The top-performing students graduating most high schools in the state were guaranteed admission to most of the eight UC undergraduate campuses. It also introduced a comprehensive review process to "evaluate students' academic achievements in light of the opportunities available to them" — using an array of criteria including a student's special skills and achievements, special circumstances and location of high school.

In 2020, the UC system eliminated standardized test scores as an admission requirement, nixing a factor that advocates say disadvantages underserved students .

Study: Colleges That Ditch The SAT And ACT Can Enhance Diversity

However, the effort to boost diversity has come with a heavy price tag. Since Prop 209 took effect, UC has spent more than a half-billion dollars on outreach programs and application reviews to draw in a more diverse student body.

It's taken 25 years of experimentation through race-neutral policies, but UC schools have begun to catch up to the racial diversity numbers lost in the wake of the affirmative action ban, says UCLA vice chancellor Chang.

"There was no magic bullet. Some things worked better than other things. And this is also work that doesn't happen overnight," Chang said.

Still, the California schools are unable to meet their diversity goals systemwide. Chang says his school is not where it wants to be. It still enrolls far fewer Black and Latino students than their share of California high school graduates — a problem it didn't have before the affirmative action ban.

As with the UC system, experts think that across the country, similarly competitive universities will be most affected by the Supreme Court's ruling.

Gabrielle Starr, president of Pomona College, a small Southern California school that wasn't subject to the state ban, fears the selective, private university will lose its racial diversity under the nationwide affirmative action ban.

Starr says that being able to consider race has allowed her school to ensure its ability to put together a diverse class.

"Having a campus that looks like the world in which our students will go onto live is really important just as a bedrock value," she said.

NPR's Adrian Florido contributed to this report.

Essay on Affirmative Action

The affirmative action emerged in response to the persisting inequality in the US society and attempted to close gaps between people that would help to prevent tension and confrontation between the privileged mainstream social group and discriminated groups, which consisted of low-income employees, minorities, and female employees.

Historically, the affirmative action in the US was started by the US government and legislators and the growing public pressure and emerging social problems. The National Labor Relations Act also known as Wagner Act of 1935 was the first major legal act that has launched the affirmative action in the US. The Wagner Act aimed at low-income groups mainly and provided employees with the right to unionize without fear of being discriminated by employers. The development of FDR New Deal programs contained equal opportunity clauses that also contributed to the enhancement of the affirmative action policies in the US.

Truman issued the Executive Order 9808 that established the President’s Committee on Civil Rights, which examined cases of violence and provided legal recommendations to prevent violence and discrimination.

At the same time, the affirmative action policies aimed at specific industries. At this point, it is possible to refer to Nixon’s Philadelphia Order of 1969, which was the most forceful plan to guarantee fair employment practices in construction jobs.

The affirmative action has a considerable social influence since it focuses on the inclusion of minority or discriminated groups and provides them with equal rights and opportunities facilitating their inclusion and integration into the workplace environment. The creation of equal employment opportunities contributes to the elimination of social differences and the society becomes less diverse and socioeconomic disparities become less striking.

The group dynamics was, to a certain extent, one of the drivers of the affirmative action because different social and racial groups have a different group dynamics. What is meant here is the fact that some social groups progressed faster and enhanced their socioeconomic standing, while others stumbled and lived in poverty. The affirmative action aimed at closing the gap not only between these groups but also and mainly between the groups’ dynamics. In such a way, the affirmative action sped up the development of low-income or discriminated groups to help them to catch up with the mainstream group dynamics.

The affirmative action has influenced substantially interpersonal relations between employees because employees from minority groups, for instance, African Americans, suffered discrimination in the workplace environment and had worse job opportunities compared to employees representing the mainstream culture. As a result, interpersonal relations between employees representing minority and mainstream groups were quite tensed. The affirmative action has eased the tension because it has contributed to the decrease of the difference and provided them with equal rights and opportunities. The equal position of all employees contributes to the improvement of their interpersonal relations because, having equal rights and opportunities, they view each other as equals.

However, the implementation of the affirmative action faced several challenges, among which deep-rooted biases and prejudices have proved to be the most significant challenges. In this regard, it is worth mentioning the fact that white employees often opposed to the affirmative action which granted non-white employees new job opportunities, thus, enhancing the competition between white and non-white employees.

The affirmative action was also viewed as the violation of human rights and contradicted to the traditional American culture and lifestyle because Americans traditionally believed the career of an individual to be a private matter and the government should not interfere into the regulation of the labor relations creating better employment opportunities for certain groups to close gaps between those groups and other employees, for example.

Law enforcement agencies also confronted substantial challenges since regulatory functions also required professionals working in law enforcement agencies to overcome their biases and prejudices. As a result, they faced the problem of the adequate execution of legal norms that enhance the affirmative action.

In addition, the affirmative action still failed to close the gap between the rich and the poor because of the historical difference in the development of the mainstream group and discriminated groups. For instance, representatives of African American and other non-white communities historically had the limited access to education that deprived them of better job opportunities even after the introduction of legal acts in terms of the affirmative action policies.  As a result, in spite of the affirmative action the inequality between employees persisted.

At the same time, researchers (Greenberg, 2003) state that the affirmative action was an essential step to close gaps and prevent the further aggravation of the situation in the US. If the problem of persisting inequality has remained unresolved and the affirmative action has never been introduced, the US could have confronted the large scale social conflict and riots that could have outgrown into a new civil war. Furthermore, researchers (Hastings, 2006) are reasonable in their arguments that the affirmative action confronted the opposition from the large part of the US society because the majority viewed the affirmative action as the threat to their position. In addition, researchers (Hamby, 2001) point out that the affirmative action contributed to the enhancement of the employment legislation and tighter regulation of the employment relations which protected employees from discrimination.

On the other hand, some researchers (Hastings, 2006) argue that the affirmative action created the ground for protectionist policies conducted by the state. However, such argument is questionable in light of the long-lasting discrimination of minority groups. Also, researchers (Greenberg, 2003) argue that the affirmative action contradicts to the US democratic norms. But the discrimination of certain groups also contradicts to democratic norms and principles. Therefore, the affirmative action is fair practice. In addition, researchers (Hastings, 2006) argue that the affirmative action led to the overregulation of the employment relations. However, the affirmative action also contributed to the better self-organization of employees and their unionization that does not involve the excessive regulation from the part of the state.

The affirmative action should not be just the matter of the government policy but it is also the matter of each individual. People should accept the affirmative action as the essential step to prevent social injustice. In addition, people should support the affirmative action maintaining fair practices in the field of employment. Such policies should be supported by the criminal justice system which should prosecute organizations and individuals violating principles of equality. Moreover, the criminal justice system should implement the principle of affirmative action within law enforcement agencies and courts to prevent further cases of discrimination.

Thus, the affirmative action was and still is an essential policy to eliminate inequality and prejudiced attitude to certain social groups from the part of the mainstream group.

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Impact of the Lack of Affirmative Action on College Essays for Students of Color

S tudents of color are experiencing increased pressure on their college essay submissions in the absence of affirmative action policies, as reported by The Associated Press. Affirmative action has been a significant factor in college admissions, aiming to enhance diversity and provide equal opportunities for students from marginalized groups.

Without these measures, the significance of other components of the college application, such as the personal essay, become heightened for students of color. These essays are often seen as a critical opportunity to communicate one’s unique experiences, background, and potential contributions to a diverse college community.

FAQ About Affirmative Action and College Essays

The role of affirmative action in college admissions has been a subject of considerable debate. As policies shift away from affirmative action, students of color are bracing for the heightened significance of their college essays, among other application elements. This increased pressure underscores the need for discussions about how best to promote diversity and equitable opportunities in higher education, as well as the comprehensive support for all applicants throughout the admissions process.

These narratives offer insights into the lived experiences of students of color and draw attention to the complexities involved in the pursuit of higher education amidst changing affirmative action landscapes. The ongoing conversations and decisions made by educational institutions will continue to have a profound impact on student admissions and the fulfillment of academic aspirations for many.

I was just accepted into Princeton University after the repeal of affirmative action. As a person of color, I'm feeling conflicted.

• I'm a person of color who was just accepted into Princeton after the repeal of affirmative action.
• When applying, I made sure to prove I was a person, not just a grade. 
• I'm happy I got in, but I can't stop thinking about the other POC who weren't so lucky.

The college admissions process is a game. Unlike other games, though, you don't necessarily have the chance to fail, to practice, to test-drive, or to get good; you just have to win. You just have to play the game that has been impending since you set foot in high school.

I played the game. As a recently accepted student to Princeton University, it might've been the best I ever played.

But I had to because I was in the first class to apply to college post-affirmative action . As a person of color, I was the guinea pig round of the increasingly unpredictable admissions process. I wondered what would merit admission, how I could talk about my experiences, and what the "holistic" application took into account.

Luckily, I gained admission to my dream school , but I can't help but think about the other disadvantaged peers who didn't.

I tried to show the admissions officers I'm a person — not a score

I went test-optional. I didn't want to be quantifiable. Even though I am number one in my class, have a high GPA, and took 21 AP courses throughout high school, removing the SAT put a larger weight on my essays.

I figured it would be harder to reject a person than a number, so I gave them a person. I spent my essays talking about ideas I was passionate about and went in depth about my activities and why I did them. The "why" was a large part of my application — from my involvement in local and national journalism to my work at a local farm.

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I took any chance I had to write in the margins of the application, describing my circumstances, from the small notes about being in the first generation of my family to attend college in the US to how being a low-income student prevented me from acquiring specialized academic tools. The additional information section was my solace. I didn't pay for a single summer program, extracurricular, or club. Everything I did, I wanted to do — and a good measure of that is my hope to continue many of my high school activities in college.

Of course, I had always been doing these activities, but after the repeal of affirmative action, intentionally emphasizing them was one way I felt I could add dimension to myself. I wanted to show the admissions office that I was an actual person with actual interests beyond school.

But I have bittersweet feelings about getting into an Ivy League school

I'd be lying if I said the feeling after getting into Princeton was all sunshine and roses. I often think about other students like myself, who struggled to share their circumstances or lost a spot after affirmative action. Somehow, I survived the game when others didn't.

But the truth is I didn't have to beat out other poor kids, other POCs, or other minorities. I had to beat the majority. My competition was never the people from my background or tax bracket . I had to beat out the system that went against me, the larger injustice — even though some of my peers couldn't.

I remind myself I didn't steal anyone's spot, and the bittersweet feeling associated with getting in is actually a good thing. It means I still have my humanity in a world where "climbing the ladder" is the norm. But also, it means I survived; I didn't succumb. I played the game instead of taking the back door, which was offered to many affluent students and legacy applicants . For that, I am glad.

Ironically, this same feeling was verbalized best by playwright Finegan Kruckemeyer, whom I wrote about in my Princeton essay, when he says:

"This was a good thing, this was a bad. Of this, I feel guilty; of this, I feel glad…Some things I can change and some I can't fix. I'm alone, but as well, I'm part of a mix."

I do think I belong among the Ivy League mix, but like any good thing, I also feel like I have to answer for the flawed system.

Watch: Rikers Island is one of the world's most notorious jails — here's what it's actually like

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Chief Justice Extols Legacy of Sandra Day O’Connor

In remarks at an award ceremony, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. described his colleague as a trailblazing and civic-minded presence on the Supreme Court.

By Zach Montague

Reporting from Durham, N.C.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. delivered a fond tribute to former Justice Sandra Day O’Connor on Thursday, celebrating her legacy as the first woman on the Supreme Court and her commitment to advancing civics and civility after her retirement.

During an award ceremony at Duke University to recognize her contribution to civics education, Chief Justice Roberts reiterated his admiration of his former colleague, a crucial swing justice who was often referred to as the most powerful woman in America. He eulogized her in December shortly after her death at 93 .

“Sandra Day O’Connor expanded the public image of what it meant to look like a judge,” he said. “She sounded the alarm about the growing lack of appreciation of what it means to be a citizen.”

For her work in civics education, she was recognized on Thursday with the Bolch Prize for the Rule of Law, an award that has often been given to honor judges, including former Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, for lifetime achievements. The award was accepted by her son Scott O’Connor.

The paths of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice O’Connor have long intersected.

On his first day of work at the Justice Department in 1981, the young Mr. Roberts was assigned to help prepare the future justice for her confirmation hearings in the Senate, putting together draft answers to questions he expected her to face. She was ultimately confirmed by a vote of 99 to 0 .

Justice O’Connor would then sit on the bench for every one of the more than three dozen cases Chief Justice Roberts argued before the Supreme Court as a lawyer, he told the audience on Thursday.

Years later, in 2005, he was nominated by President George W. Bush to succeed Justice O’Connor when she announced she would retire. The two ultimately served alongside each other on the bench for less than a year after the death of Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist left a more urgent vacancy.

For a brief period before the arrival of Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020, Chief Justice Roberts had a taste of the role Justice O’Connor played throughout much of her time on the court, serving as the swing vote and the ideological center. In her nearly 25 years on the court, Justice O’Connor frequently staked out a middle ground on contentious issues like abortion, gay rights and affirmative action.

Echoing previous public remarks memorializing her, Chief Justice Roberts paid tribute to Justice O’Connor’s trailblazing role, citing how she had laid a foundation for women to follow at a time when they were not seen as equals.

Flipping through photos from early in her career, he paused several times to highlight the conspicuous scarcity of other women around her in her law school class, a moot court competition and later on the Supreme Court, drawing laughs from the crowd.

“I certainly felt that she felt she had a responsibility as the first woman on the Supreme Court to show that she could more than keep up with the boys,” he said on Thursday. “But I think she also felt a responsibility as the most powerful woman in America to be out there, putting her best foot forward and promoting the values that help define our country.”

Justice O’Connor stepped down in 2006 to care for her husband, who was battling Alzheimer’s disease, but remained active in public life, hearing cases on appeals courts and promoting civics education, including by establishing an online program. In 2018, she announced she had dementia.

Her example helped open the door for others, however. Today, four of the nine justices are women.

Zach Montague is based in Washington. He covers breaking news and developments around the district. More about Zach Montague

FAFSA delays and end of affirmative action are colliding for a chaotic college admissions season

Ailine Rodrigues was accepted to all 11 colleges she applied to. An aspiring first-generation student, she still doesn’t know if she can afford her top choice or other four-year institutions because of delays with the federal government’s financial aid program.

“It’s really frustrating,” Rodrigues said. “My mom all the time [is] asking me if the college has said anything about how much we’re going to pay, and I don’t know how to answer her questions. So I come to my college counselor, and I ask them, but they don’t know either.”

The lengthy logjam in the financial aid program is disrupting the college acceptance season this spring just as colleges and applicants learn how the US Supreme Court’s ban on affirmative action last year — and the schools’ efforts to mitigate it — will affect diversity on campus. About one month before students are typically expected to secure their spots at universities, the federal government has not told many families how much aid they will get.

“This has been a disaster,” said Jade Franco, program officer for the Boston Foundation’s Pathways to Postsecondary Success, which helps prepare low-income students in the Greater Boston region for higher education and careers. “The students who are coming from backgrounds that have more obstacles to overcome — those students have really struggled, and feel very frustrated and broken by this year’s financial aid process.”

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To apply for federal aid and scholarships, students have to provide extensive financial information to the federal government through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, or FAFSA. Many colleges use that data as the basis for the financial aid packages they offer to students, usually by late March — often much earlier. Students are normally required to send deposits to secure their spots by May 1.

This year, however, errors , delays, and bureaucratic dysfunction disrupted the rollout of what was supposed to be a simplified FAFSA form. For example, students had trouble submitting their parents’ Social Security numbers, especially if one or both parents were undocumented, and faced long wait times for assistance. About 30 percent fewer students completed the federal financial aid form this year as of March 15, according to the National College Attainment Network’s FAFSA Tracker.

Financial aid will undoubtedly loom large in students’ decision-making. In 2020, about 72 percent of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid, according to the US Department of Education, including about 81 percent of Black students, 72 percent of Latino students, 70 percent of white students, and 66 percent of Asian students.

As a workaround, some schools are rushing to put together aid offers, collecting their own financial information, or are pushing back deadlines for students to submit deposits.

Higher education watchers worry the botched rollout means low- and middle-income students will not be able to weigh multiple offers and make informed decisions. And although students can request extensions for their deposits, students from marginalized backgrounds are less likely “to ask for help and raise their hand to ask,” Franco said.

“It’s adding more steps and red tape,” she said.

Bob Bardwell, executive director of the Massachusetts School Counselors Association, said he is concerned some students will instead take a job or a gap year, or attend a community college rather than enroll at a four-year school.

“FAFSA is a complete nightmare,” Bardwell said. “These are families who may decide higher ed is not worth it. That is a shame. The government is supposed to be helping them.”

A spokesperson for the US Department of Education said it remains “focused on helping students and families through this process and supporting colleges produce aid offers as quickly as possible.”

“We have now processed more than 6 million FAFSA forms and [are] now returning to normal processing timelines, which means colleges and institutions will receive student records within one to three days after submission,” the spokesperson said. “The department continues to encourage schools, states, and scholarship organizations to provide flexibility and as much time as possible for students to make important enrollment decisions.”

Heading into this year’s admissions season, some college leaders feared the Supreme Court’s affirmative action decision would cause fewer students of color to even apply to elite colleges. In California, for example, applications to top public universities from Black and Hispanic high school graduates fell after the state banned affirmative action in 1996.

Preliminary data from this year’s admissions cycle, however, suggest that hasn’t happened: The number of Black, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander applicants to four-year colleges using the Common App was up 10 percent from a year earlier, and the number of first-generation applicants grew 4 percent, according to data published recently by the Common App. And several colleges, including Harvard University and Brown University, reported in December they accepted higher percentages of first-generation students in their early admissions rounds.

That may be in part because many colleges took steps last year to encourage Black and Hispanic students to apply, including sending representatives to talk with students at more high schools with high proportions of students of color.

“I was a high school counselor for six years, and that was a really big thing when you have a [college representative] come to school and talk to students,” said Kendra Grinnage, an associate principal with higher education consulting firm Kennedy & Company.

Colleges also developed stronger partnerships with community organizations that work with low-income high school students and retrained admission officers to ignore applicants’ race.

The high court’s decision did not end admissions policies where colleges consider factors such as applicants’ life experiences and the challenges they’ve overcome. Many colleges added supplemental essay questions to give applicants the opportunity to talk about how factors such as culture, ethnicity, gender, and community have influenced their identities, world views, and ambitions.

The University of Massachusetts Amherst, for example, now asks students to reflect on a community or group that has defined or shaped their world, and how being a product of that community would enrich the campus.

“Having just a little bit more information that puts things in context was very helpful,” said Jim Roche, vice provost for enrollment management at UMass Amherst.

However, these changes made the application process, already an opaque and stress-inducing experience, more confusing for some students, who questioned whether they should discuss race or not, said Adam Nguyen, founder of Ivy Link, which works with wealthy families and students to improve their chances of being selected to top colleges.

“Should I bring up race if I’m not in a previously protected class?” Nguyen said. “That is what students were wondering about. What challenges did I overcome?”

Some colleges admitted more students this year, which “gives them a better chance to end up with a diverse class,” said Wes Butterfield, an Iowa-based enrollment consultant with Ruffalo Noel Levitz who advises colleges. “You’re doing it based on volume.”

Applications to UMass Amherst surpassed 50,000 for the second year in a row, with accepted students up 1.5 percent from a year ago. UMass accepted 29,567 students this year; the first-year class is 5,275 students.

Applications from students in underrepresented groups, meanwhile, grew 11 percent, and admissions from those groups increased by 7 percent. African American, Latino, Native American, and Alaskan Native students account for 17 percent of the undergraduate population at UMass Amherst.

Rodrigues, a senior at the Academy of the Pacific Rim Charter School in Hyde Park, moved with her family to Massachusetts from Cape Verde when she was a toddler. She was accepted to Northeastern University in Boston, UMass Amherst, and Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, N.H. Her top choice is Northeastern because of the school’s robust internship and co-op programs.

Northeastern’s total sticker price before financial aid for the current academic year is $86,821, while the average annual cost students pay to attend the school is $34,255, according to the Department of Education’s College Scorecard.

Her mother urged her to apply to community college if her financial aid packages don’t arrive before deposits are due.

“If FAFSA doesn’t give us any money, that would probably be my only choice, because we can’t pay that much,” Rodrigues said.

Hilary Burns can be reached at [email protected] . Follow her @Hilarysburns .

In a post-affirmative action world, Harvard admits its first class — discounting race

• KirkCarapezza

For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down more than 40 years of legal precedent that had said colleges can consider applicants’ race, Harvard on Thursday released admissions data for the accepted class of 2028. Remarkably, recent legal and political events do not appear to have affected the demand for a Harvard degree or the economic makeup of those students offered a seat.

According to data provided by the College, Harvard admitted 1,937 applicants from a pool of more than 54,000 students, so its acceptance rate is now 3.6%. That’s up, nominally, from 3.4% last year.

These figures give the public its first glimpse behind the ivy of how this country’s oldest college plans to build a class in a post-affirmative action world. Still, Harvard is not releasing racial or ethnic demographic data of students to whom it has offered admissions, citing potential litigation.

“Based on advice from counsel, admissions readers will not be accessing applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity data or aggregated data about applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity at any time until the admissions process has concluded,” Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said in a statement.

Since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2023, Harvard said it reworked its holistic, widely replicated admissions process, making sure that officers do not have access to applicants’ race or even their application essay answers about race and ethnicity.

In his majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, wrote that nothing in the ruling prohibits universities from considering “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”

That means the Court allows applicants to mention their racial identity and experiences in admissions essays or interviews and that colleges may take those narratives it into account when making decisions.

This application season Harvard included new essay questions asking students to talk about, for example, how their life experiences have influenced who they are and how they might contribute to the campus community.

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The admitted class come from all 50 states and 94 countries. Fifty-three percent of admitted students are women; 47% are men.

First-generation students make up 20% of the class, mirroring previous years.

That disappointed Natasha Warikoo, a sociologist at Tufts University and author of the book “Is Affirmative Action Fair?”.

Warikoo said she’d like to see Harvard’s incoming class better reflect the U.S. population’s racial and economic composition.

Warikoo, who has long studied and researched race in admissions, said it is “disconcerting” but “not surprising” to see this fresh data without racial demographic breakdowns.

“I assumed that we wouldn’t find out until the recruiting season is over so that there’s no worry about getting sued by saying, ‘Well, you recruited these groups harder than these groups,’” Warikoo said. “But I am waiting with bated breath to see what the outcome of admissions this year looks like at Harvard and all selective colleges that used to practice race-conscious admissions and can’t anymore.”

Anthony Jack, a sociologist at Boston University and author of the book “The Privileged Poor,” said it’s troubling not to have access to racial and ethnic data.

“A lot of the inequalities that we were starting to pay attention to are now hidden,” Jack said. “We never really knew how many students [were] Black from Caribbean or African descent versus Black who can trace their legacy back to slavery.”

Jack said he’s encouraged that Harvard has continued to recruit low-income, underrepresented students. To build this class, Harvard said its admissions officers traveled to 150 cities in the United States and around the world to recruit applicants, joining a new consortium of 30 public and private colleges working to raise awareness in rural communities.

Jack suggested Harvard and other selective colleges “double down” on first-generation and rural students through geographically targeted outreach.

“Place-based initiatives will allow us to recruit not just economically disadvantaged students but also those who come from racially segregated communities because of the history of exclusion and housing in America,” Jack said. “We know how segregated America’s cities are. We know which schools support students from minority groups.”

Before Thursday’s data release, experts had openly questioned whether Harvard’s reputation and brand would be undermined by the Court’s decision and the way administrators, including former president Claudine Gay, handled the University’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.

For now, recent events don’t appear to have affected the decisions of high school seniors to seek an education at a certain college in Cambridge.

“High-school seniors are much more likely paying attention to financial aid,” Warikoo said.

According to Harvard, nearly a quarter of students attend without paying anything and the average parent contribution for students who received financial aid this academic year was $13,000.

For students who don’t receive need-based aid, the total cost of attendance is set to increase 4.3% to $82,866 in the fall.

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