Navigating the New Landscape of College Admissions: A Year After the Supreme Court's Decision on Affirmative Action

Boston, Massachusetts, Massachusetts, USA United States of America
Applications from Black and Hispanic students have increased by 9 percentage points and 10 percentage points respectively in some colleges to ensure compliance with the law.
David Jiang, an 18-year-old student whose parents immigrated from China, had Harvard as his dream school but cannot lean on his Chinese American heritage in his application anymore.
Harvard and University of North Carolina's admissions programs, which accounted for race, were found to violate the Equal Protection Clause.
Harvard spent $25 million to defend affirmative action in court but reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences could have increased diversity without violating equal protection clause.
Queens University paused their Board of Trustees meeting to acknowledge the loss of a defining piece of students' stories and identities after the ruling.
Some universities have reconsidered all ways they use race as a factor in light of the ruling.
The Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions last year.
Navigating the New Landscape of College Admissions: A Year After the Supreme Court's Decision on Affirmative Action

Last June, the Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions with a 6-3 decision. The court held that Harvard and the University of North Carolina's admissions programs, which had accounted for race at various stages in the process, violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

One year later, students applying to post-secondary schools are navigating a new landscape. Some universities have reconsidered all ways they use race as a factor in light of the ruling.

David Jiang, an 18-year-old student whose parents immigrated from China more than 20 years ago, had Harvard University as his dream school. He decided to lean into his Chinese American heritage in his application. However, Harvard cannot consider race as part of a student's application but students can still share that information in their essays.

Queens University paused their Board of Trustees meeting to acknowledge the loss of a defining piece of each student's story and identity after the ruling. Many selective universities have boosted outreach efforts by offering college courses to high school students, such as the National Education Equity Lab which has expanded to 31 states and 120 school districts.

A year after the ban on race-conscious admissions, applications from Black and Hispanic students have increased by 9 percentage points and 10 percentage points respectively. Some colleges want to make sure they are in compliance with the law.

Harvard spent $25 million to defend affirmative action in court, framing it as essential for their educational mission and student success. However, reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences could have increased diversity at Harvard and other colleges without violating the equal protection clause but was not pursued.

Reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences mostly benefits affluent white people. The principle of race-neutrality is being felt more subtly at universities like Queens that accept more applicants than they turn away.

The Supreme Court decision has left some students and educators concerned about the impact on diversity in education. Some argue that the ruling could lead to a less diverse student body, while others believe it will level the playing field for all applicants.


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Confidence

85%

Doubts
  • The article mentions that applications from Black and Hispanic students have increased by 9 percentage points and 10 percentage points respectively, but it does not provide a source for this information.
  • The article states that reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences could have increased diversity at Harvard and other colleges without violating the equal protection clause, but it does not provide any evidence or data to support this claim.

Sources

78%

The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermine the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
(Site Conflicts Of Interest + Author Conflicts Of Interest) / 2.0 * 0.2 + ArticleBiasScore * 0.20 + UniquePointsScore * 0.05 + DeceptionScore * 0.20 + ReadabilityScore * 0.05 + FallacyScore * 0.20

A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

Race was once factored into college admissions. Now, it’s factored out.

The Fixing Site: A Summary of the Article. Julian Mark, Saturday, 29 June 2024 12:05
  • Unique Points
    • Queens University paused their Board of Trustees meeting to acknowledge a new era after the ruling.
    • Adrienne Oddi, vice president of strategic enrollment and communications at Queens, published an open letter on the university’s website acknowledging the loss of a defining piece of each student’s story and identity.
    • Many selective universities have reconsidered all ways they use race as a factor in light of the ruling.
    • The principle of race-neutrality is being felt more subtly at universities like Queens that accept more applicants than they turn away.
  • Accuracy
    • The Supreme Court overturned race-conscious college admissions last June.
    • California, Texas, and Michigan have seen immediate and significant declines in Black and Hispanic enrollment at their flagship institutions after state officials prohibited them from considering race in admissions.
  • Deception (30%)
    The article contains selective reporting and emotional manipulation. The author focuses on the negative impact of the Supreme Court's decision on race-conscious college admissions without mentioning its potential positive effects, such as promoting equal opportunity for all students. Additionally, the author uses emotional language to evoke sympathy for students who may feel dissuaded from writing about their whole selves due to the ruling. For example, Oddi is described as feeling 'sadness' and wanting to live in a world where people can know and be known fully.
    • It's hard to overstate the sea-change effect that occurred and is, frankly, still occurring... What does this mean for financial aid and scholarships? What does this mean for nonprofit organizations that are partners with institutions that may have a racial focus? What does this mean for issues of sex and gender beyond the question of race and national origin?
    • But today, she said, that conversation would not happen at Queens. In fact, Oddi said she feels barred from acting on the student’s racial information at all.
    • A year later, many of the nation’s most selective universities have snapped into compliance with the court’s vision of a colorblind America, reconsidering all the ways they use race as a factor.
  • Fallacies (85%)
    The authors make an appeal to emotion when they describe the 'sadness' felt by Adrienne Oddi and her sense of 'loss'. They also use inflammatory rhetoric by describing the Supreme Court ruling as a 'new race-neutral era' and a 'sea-change effect'. Additionally, there is an example of a dichotomous depiction when they describe the principle of race-neutrality as being felt more subtly at universities like Queens but having significant implications for American society at large.
    • a sense of ‘sadness’ … rather for the students who may feel dissuaded from writing about their whole selves, including race and ethnicity.
    • This day, Oddi, vice president of strategic enrollment and communications at Queens, published an open letter on the university’s website… noting that admissions officials had lost an ‘essential tool in our tool kit by losing a defining piece of each student’s story – of each student’s identity.’
    • The principle of race-neutrality is being felt more subtly at universities like Queens that accept more applicants than they turn away.
    • But today, she said, that conversation would not happen at Queens. In fact, Oddi said she feels barred from acting on the student’s racial information at all.
    • It’s hard to overstate the sea-change effect that occurred and is, frankly, still occurring…
    • What does this mean for financial aid and scholarships? What does this mean for nonprofit organizations that are partners with institutions that may have a racial focus?
  • Bias (90%)
    The authors express sadness and a sense of loss regarding the inability to consider race as a factor in college admissions. They describe how this has led to erasing or ignoring racial information about applicants, which could be seen as implicitly valuing a racially neutral student body over one that reflects diversity.
    • But those initiatives are more expensive.
      • But today, she said, that conversation would not happen at Queens. In fact, Oddi said she feels barred from acting on the student’s racial information at all.
        • It’s harder to predict what might happen at highly competitive private universities. They may be guided by the experiences of the public schools, which have deployed a variety of strategies to try to maintain diversity.
          • When the Supreme Court overturned race-conscious college admissions last June, Adrienne Oddi and other administrators at Queens University paused their Board of Trustees meeting to acknowledge that their world was entering a new era.
          • Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
            None Found At Time Of Publication
          • Author Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
            None Found At Time Of Publication

          76%

          The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermine the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
          (Site Conflicts Of Interest + Author Conflicts Of Interest) / 2.0 * 0.2 + ArticleBiasScore * 0.20 + UniquePointsScore * 0.05 + DeceptionScore * 0.20 + ReadabilityScore * 0.05 + FallacyScore * 0.20

          A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

          Opinion | The Sad Truth About Elite Universities

          Politico News Site Name: POLITICO Full Legal Name of News Site: Politico LLC Location of News Site: Washington D.C., USA Tuesday, 25 June 2024 00:00
          • Unique Points
            • Harvard and 37 other US colleges have more students from the top 1% income distribution than the bottom 60% for several years.
            • Reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences could have increased diversity at Harvard and other colleges without violating equal protection clause but was not pursued.
            • Harvard spent $25 million to defend affirmative action in court, framing it as essential for educational mission and student success.
            • ALDC preferences mostly benefit affluent white people.
          • Accuracy
            • At Harvard, over 15% of students come from the top 1%, and over 30% are ALDCs (legacy, athletic, development, children of faculty/staff) admissions.
          • Deception (30%)
            The article makes editorializing statements and uses emotional manipulation by implying that the elite colleges are preserving the American elite and maintaining 'important institutional interests' such as intercollegiate sports. The author also selectively reports information by focusing on the lack of action taken by elite colleges to reduce or eliminate ALDC preferences, while ignoring other potential race-neutral ways to increase diversity. Additionally, the article references a study that shows students from families in the top 1% are 13 times more likely than students from the bottom quintile to reach 1300 on the SAT without disclosing that it is a pre-print study.
            • The data broadly suggests the SAT further advantages the wealthy.
            • The reality is so little has been done in response to the Supreme Court’s ruling that the dynamics of the case seem fundamentally different in retrospect. With the first anniversary of the decision approaching, it now seems more accurate to describe the antagonists in the case as silent partners in a shared project of preserving the American elite.
          • Fallacies (80%)
            The author makes an appeal to authority by quoting statistics and studies to support their argument. However, they also make several statements that could be considered inflammatory rhetoric as they criticize elite colleges for preserving the American elite and maintaining wealth disparities on campus. No formal fallacies were found in the text.
            • ] Harvard stands by them.[/] Justice Thomas (quoted by author)
            • Harvard is socioeconomically diverse.[] It's hard to take this claim seriously when they've doubled down on ALDC preferences.[
          • Bias (80%)
            The article expresses a clear bias against elite universities and their admissions practices, specifically focusing on the preservation of legacy preferences and the exclusion of socioeconomically disadvantaged students. The author criticizes these institutions for maintaining wealth disparities on their campuses and failing to find alternative ways to increase diversity in response to the Supreme Court's ruling on affirmative action.
            • Harvard stands by them.
              • Instead, the opposite has happened.
                • Many have doubled down on legacy preference and other mechanisms of exclusion that drive the massive wealth disparities on these campuses.
                  • Reducing or eliminating ALDC preferences also would have reduced the chances of the case reaching the Supreme Court in the first place
                  • Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Author Conflicts Of Interest (0%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication

                  98%

                  The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermine the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
                  (Site Conflicts Of Interest + Author Conflicts Of Interest) / 2.0 * 0.2 + ArticleBiasScore * 0.20 + UniquePointsScore * 0.05 + DeceptionScore * 0.20 + ReadabilityScore * 0.05 + FallacyScore * 0.20

                  A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

                  Students navigate new college admissions landscape, one year after affirmative action is struck down

                  ABC NEWS SITE NAMES Name: ABC News Site Names URL: https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/us-officially-blames-iran_106834435 ABC News Saturday, 29 June 2024 19:21
                  • Unique Points
                    • Harvard cannot consider race as part of a student’s application but students can still share that information in their essays.
                    • David Jiang decided to lean into his Chinese American heritage in his application.
                  • Accuracy
                    • The Supreme Court struck down the use of affirmative action in college admissions last June.
                    • Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s admissions programs were found to violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.
                  • Deception (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Fallacies (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Bias (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Author Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication

                  95%

                  The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermine the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
                  (Site Conflicts Of Interest + Author Conflicts Of Interest) / 2.0 * 0.2 + ArticleBiasScore * 0.20 + UniquePointsScore * 0.05 + DeceptionScore * 0.20 + ReadabilityScore * 0.05 + FallacyScore * 0.20

                  A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

                  A Year of Subtle and ‘Seismic’ Shifts

                  The Chronicle of Higher Education Eric Hoover Friday, 28 June 2024 02:41
                  • Unique Points
                    • One year ago, the US Supreme Court effectively outlawed the consideration of a college applicant’s racial status in admissions.
                  • Accuracy
                    • Many selective universities have reconsidered all ways they use race as a factor in light of the ruling.
                    • Harvard spent $25 million to defend affirmative action in court, framing it as essential for educational mission and student success.
                  • Deception (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Fallacies (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Bias (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication
                  • Author Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                    None Found At Time Of Publication

                  77%

                  The overall score is a weighted number that takes into account conflict of interest, bias, deception and other practices that undermine the credibility of the source. It is calculated as:
                  (Site Conflicts Of Interest + Author Conflicts Of Interest) / 2.0 * 0.2 + ArticleBiasScore * 0.20 + UniquePointsScore * 0.05 + DeceptionScore * 0.20 + ReadabilityScore * 0.05 + FallacyScore * 0.20

                  A score that takes into consideration the content for flow, interruptions with ads, and overt search engine optimization techniques that makes the content hard to understand

                  One year after ban on race-conscious admissions, Black and Hispanic student applications are up

                  WGBH News Kirk Carapezza Friday, 28 June 2024 09:00
                  • Unique Points
                    • A year after the US Supreme Court banned race-conscious admissions, applications from Black and Hispanic students have increased by 9 percentage points and 10 percentage points respectively.
                    • John King Jr., former US education secretary, was concerned that the Supreme Court ruling might discourage students of color from applying to colleges. He is now relieved by the increase in applications.
                    • Some colleges have boosted outreach efforts by offering college courses to high school students, such as the National Education Equity Lab which has expanded to 31 states and 120 school districts.
                    • Marah Rigaud, an accepted Yale University student, completed college courses from selective schools before applying and wrote about her Haitian culture in her college essay.
                  • Accuracy
                    • Applications from Black and Hispanic students have increased by 9 percentage points and 10 percentage points respectively.
                    • Technical glitches related to the new federal student aid (FAFSA) form could affect where and whether students attend college, especially those from low-income families.
                  • Deception (10%)
                    The article does not make any direct false claims or intentionally deceive the reader. However, it does present a selective view of the situation by focusing on the increase in applications from Black and Hispanic students after the ban on race-conscious admissions. It implies that this increase is a positive outcome and contrasts with predictions of major losses to campus diversity following the Supreme Court ruling. The article also fails to disclose its sources, which could have included information about colleges that did not see an increase in applications or data on enrollment numbers.
                    • Colleges have seen a 9 percentage point increase in applications from Black students and a 10 percentage point spike in Hispanic students applying to four-year colleges compared to last year, according to the Common App.
                    • The numbers came as a relief to John King Jr., former U.S. education secretary under President Barack Obama...
                    • A landmark 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision ended the consideration of race in college admissions. But one year after the ruling, research shows the number of students of color applying to four-year colleges has increased.
                  • Fallacies (90%)
                    The article contains a few inflammatory rhetorical statements and appeals to authority but no formal logical fallacies. The author states that the number of Black and Hispanic student applications has increased after the ban on race-conscious admissions, which could be seen as an appeal to authority due to the prominence of the Common App data. Additionally, there is inflammatory rhetoric in phrases like 'landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ended the consideration of race in college admissions' and 'the message from the Supreme Court that Black and Latino students are not wanted in higher education'. However, these statements do not directly contain logical fallacies.
                    • A landmark 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision ended the consideration of race in college admissions.
                    • But one year after the ruling, research shows the number of students of color applying to four-year colleges has increased.
                  • Bias (95%)
                    The author expresses a positive sentiment towards the increase in applications from Black and Hispanic students after the ban on race-conscious admissions. He quotes John King Jr., former U.S. education secretary, who also expresses relief and positivity about the increase in applications.
                    • ]I was very worried that students would take away the message from the Supreme Court that Black and Latino students are not wanted in higher education,
                    • Site Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                      None Found At Time Of Publication
                    • Author Conflicts Of Interest (100%)
                      None Found At Time Of Publication