The Supreme Court’s rejection of affirmative action is one of several factors changing college admissions.
Here’s what to expect.
Complying with/Circumventing AA Restrictions
The Supreme Court’s rejection of affirmative action practices has been in place for two years, and colleges have responded differently to the prohibition, with some devising workarounds and others more willing to accept declining diversity in their student bodies. It’s possible to check out the student body composition of individual institutions both before and after the 2023 ruling to discern which category they seem to fall into.
Legacy Admissions in the Crosshairs
Institutions committed to diversity and fairness will be under pressure from students and faculty to curtail or dispense with legacy preferences. The healthier their balance sheets and the more applicants they have to choose from, the likelier it is that they will move in this direction.
In short, rich and highly competitive schools—Amherst, Cal Tech, Carleton, Johns Hopkins, MIT, Wesleyan—have already bade farewell to the custom of privileging alumni offspring and more are certain to follow.
Vulnerable Niche Sports
In 2020, colleges dropped over 250 teams from all three divisions of NCAA competition, making it harder to win a college place as, say, a recruited fencer or rower.
More such cuts are likely to follow. The Supreme Court’s ruling is shining light anew on the niche sports that skew admissions favorably towards affluent white applicants. Unprofitable and enjoying less alumni support, they are likely targets for colleges wanting to retain at least some of the diversity they have enjoyed for some time.
Early Decision: Popular and Endangered?
Colleges have been able to goose their yields (number of students accepting among those offered admission) by giving an advantage to students who commit to them via their ED programs. As this advantage has become well publicized, a majority of college applicants have felt compelled to choose an ED or EA school.
However, this has skewed admissions towards the more homogeneous subset who worry less about financial aid.. Therefore, expect ED programs to convert to Early Action or to be eliminated outright, especially if peer institutions express support for the same idea. The law school boycott of the US News rankings shows this dynamic in action.
Changing Relevance of Test Scores
Covid saw test-optional policies instituted at 98% of America’s top 100 colleges and universities. Many competitive schools have since reinstated testing requirements after finding a correlation between higher scores and better student performance, with the result that some of the flood of applications to very selective institutions has abated even as the average number of applications per student has increased overall.
Financial Concerns for Everyone!
High-profile schools and those with rich endowments have seen funding disappear, financial penalties imposed and endowment taxes applied, too..
Meanwhile. Pell grants are shrinking and becoming harder to come by.
Expect more mercenary decision-making by schools under greatest pressure and a bump in applications to schools that have stayed out of the headlines.
Enthusiasm Advantage - More Situational
Demonstrating enthusiasm for a favored institution, e.g., via repeat visits or participation in a campus summer program, has been a time-honored way for applicants to earn “extra points.” Since the strategy has largely been employed by wealthier families, it might have been expected to come under scrutiny, as well. That said, colleges are scrambling more than they used to, especially if they’ve had significant percentages of international students, and believing that a candidate is a sure bet, even at the last minute, can be a powerful incentive to offer an acceptance.
Attestations of Resilience
Applicants are being invited to delineate what, if anything, they’ve overcome in order to achieve what they have so far. The exercise disadvantages students from both ends of the fortune spectrum—applicants from intact, prosperous families and those who are so battle-scarred by circumstance that they are deemed less likely to make it to graduation.
The Opportunity that is the Personal Essay
Great college experiences are made by great individuals—classmates, roommates, teammates, etc., and admissions officers want to compose classes of people who will make a difference in the lives of their peers.
Your essay is your chance to reveal the one and only YOU. Who are you? How do you look at things? What do you care about?
Our clients have distinguished themselves as future assets to their college and graduate communities by writing essays that are memorable, even unforgettable. That’s what you need to do, too!