Last week, on June 29th, the Supreme Court struck down race-conscious affirmative action in U.S. college admissions. Race-based affirmative action was a process whereby a college or university would factor in an applicant’s race—among MANY other factors—into their admissions rubric, in an effort to diversify their incoming classes and provide more educational access to historically underrepresented racial groups.
The SCOTUS decision came as quite a shock to many, and I wouldn’t be surprised if your emotions are running high. There are those of you who might feel grief, worry and fear—truly scared for your future and your college prospects without the added boost of race-conscious admissions. There are also those of you who might feel joy, elation and hope—as something you perceived as an obstacle to your dreams has been removed.
No matter where you fall on this spectrum, know that—as was also the case once the Pandemic hit—the college admissions landscape is changing. Fast. And as a standardized test prep and college application essay expert who’s been helping all walks of students get into their dream colleges for over 13 years now, I’m here to help. Specifically, I’m here to cut through the noise, make sense of the earth shifting beneath our collective feet, and show you what you need to do next to get what YOU want: admission to your dream schools.
ARTICLE CONTENTS
1. How does the end of affirmative action change college admissions?
2. Can colleges increase diversity without affirmative action?
3. So, without affirmative action, can I just skip the ACT and SAT?
4. I'm in the Class of 2025 or younger. Won't college be Test Optional by the time I apply?
5. Conclusion: should rising Juniors (and younger) take the SAT/ACT?
How does the end of affirmative action change college admissions?
Many colleges—especially highly selective colleges—value the diversity of their student body as a core mission and have used race-conscious admissions to help create this diversity on their campuses.
Not ALL colleges do this, mind you—as of 2019, according to a survey conducted that year by NACAC, about half of colleges and universities did NOT consider race when creating their incoming classes. Going a step further than this, there are nine states that have outlawed race-based affirmative action in their public colleges and universities for a while now: California, Michigan, Florida, Arizona, Idaho, Nebraska, New Hampshire, Oklahoma and Washington.
But going back to those schools that HAVE used and DO use race-conscious admissions to diversify their student bodies: being able to consider an applicant’s race as a data-point helped these colleges give a boost to historically underrepresented groups. Without being able to factor in race directly, these colleges will have to find alternative routes to foster the same level of diversity as before.
Can colleges increase diversity without affirmative action?
There are many possibilities out there, but each one has its pros and cons. (Not to mention, many of these are maddeningly indirect approaches to fostering diversity!) Luckily, we can already look to campuses that have not been able to use race-conscious affirmative action (i.e. colleges located in those nine states that already banned it) to see what’s worked and what hasn’t.
Keep in mind that there are MANY factors a university has to consider when forming its admissions policies: sure, an institution might strongly value diversity, but that institution might also depend heavily on tuition from current students to pay its bills. Thus, there tends to be a delicate balancing act between policies that might foster diversity and policies that might gut the university financially…and force it to shutter its doors.
Here are the most talked-about solutions:
Conduct outreach to high schools in under-privileged areas: This is probably the most direct approach. After all, reaching out directly to the students from neighborhoods that are economically disadvantaged, finding students with clear potential, and encouraging them to apply to your institution will open access to the exact person you were trying to help in the first place, right? The only issue is that this takes TIME and considerable money and resources for a university to do. The University of Michigan and the UC system have both been trying this out (even spending hundreds of millions in efforts), but have still not recouped the levels of diversity they had before their respective state bans.
Create some version of a socioeconomic-conscious affirmative action system / adversity index: The U.C. Davis School of Medicine has successfully used what it calls a “Socioeconomic Disadvantage Scale,” or S.E.D., to reach its diversity goals (while still requiring MCATs). This method would take lots of time and effort for selective universities to develop and execute, but it could potentially close the representation gap considerably.
Eliminate legacy preference: Amherst, MIT and Johns Hopkins have already taken this step, as these spots tend to be given to students who skew rich and white. The thing is, these are also students who are likelier to be able to pay full tuition and to have parents who are significant donors, which might run counter to a university’s bottom line.
Eliminate preferential admissions treatment to donors and faculty: Similar to the legacy preference option described above. While this opens up potential spots to more applicants in underrepresented racial groups…a school might have trouble funding its new performance arts space as a result!
Eliminate athletic recruitment for niche and conventionally wealthy sports: I mean, at my high school growing up—which had a predominately racial minority student body—we definitely did NOT have a fencing, crew, or squash team. Just sayin’.
Allow more community college transfers: This offers a path of upward mobility to (often minority) students who might not have gotten into/applied to a given selective college as a Freshman, but who show potential.
Decrease/eliminate merit aid: Some argue that merit-based aid mainly benefits students who don’t need financial aid, and, thus, students who are more advantaged…which tend to NOT be the underrepresented minority groups selective colleges are seeking when they say they are seeking diversity.
Expand need-based financial aid: If you admit qualified students who can’t afford your college, they will probably have to go somewhere else…somewhere likely less selective, which is often less expensive. If you offer ample aid, more of these applicants will commit to your campus.
Reduce/change/eliminate Early Decision programs: Universities benefit from Early Decision because they can fill up key spots in their incoming class. However, students tend to have to commit before seeing what financial aid is being offered to them. For that reason, the people who tend to benefit—i.e. apply early when the acceptance rate is typically higher and they have a better shot of getting in—are often those who can pay full tuition.
Make the SAT and ACT optional: As acknowledged by Brown University President Christina Paxson, “standardized test scores are a much better predictor of academic success than high school grades, which are…increasingly subject to grade inflation.” Still, many bemoan the SAT and ACT as obstacles that keep disadvantaged groups out of top institutions, because, unfortunately, not everyone can afford SAT tutoring, classes, or prep materials.
Given all these options, pros and cons, what’s a diversity-seeking, highly-selective college to do? We won’t know yet…
…And neither will they! See, the Supreme Court issued a 237-page decision last Tuesday that will take universities—and their legal teams!—significant time and effort to comb through. As I just read in my alumni newsletter, Brown University will be spending the entire summer working on this issue, so it’s unlikely anyone will magically come up with perfect policy changes by tomorrow.
So, without Affirmative Action, Can I Just Skip the ACT and SAT?
Seeing as we don’t actually know how each college and university will respond to the decision—whether they will incorporate other diversity-related admissions policies, etc.—you shouldn’t make any drastic decisions yet. We don’t know all the facts at this point.
If you’ll recall, college hopefuls faced a similar issue during the COVID-19 Pandemic: many schools temporarily became Test Optional (some even Test Blind/Free), so many parents and students wondered if they could simply skip standardized testing entirely.
My advice/logic from back then still holds to this current situation:
If ALL of the colleges on your (tentative) list are Test Optional or Test Blind/Test Free…AND you have an application so stellar that you don’t need a test score to strengthen it…AND financial aid and scholarships don’t matter to you…then MAYBE you can consider skipping the SAT and ACT.
However, for most students, all of those stars do not align—and if you’re part of that majority, you need to plan for the likelihood that you will need to submit standardized test scores as part of your college application process.
I'm in the Class of 2025 or younger. Won't College Be Test Optional By the Time I Apply?
Again, we don’t know. I’m not a political pundit. I’m also not on the board of a University. I do not create educational policy in D.C. However, I’ve been helping high schoolers around the globe get into college for a LONG TIME now. That, and I have killer analytical skills, as well as pretty accurate intuition. (No, really.)
My gut—and the data I’ve seen play out so far—says that there will ALWAYS be some colleges and universities out there that will require an SAT or ACT score to apply.
Even looking to the nine states that already banned race-conscious admissions in their public colleges and universities, we see starkly different testing policies: on one hand, you have California, which went completely Test Blind for its UC system of campuses…while on the other hand, you have Florida, whose state schools still require standardized test scores.
So, the class of 2025 and beyond should operate under the assumption that you WILL likely have to take either the SAT or ACT for your college admissions.
Yes, as always, this depends on which schools you wish to apply to; you’ll need to check out their specific admissions processes and requirements when it’s time to apply (a year from now). There are several colleges and universities that have always been Test Optional, and a few still might be Test Optional or Test Blind/Test Free for your year due to the pandemic. And then we will have to wait and see how other colleges change or don’t change their admissions policies based on this Supreme Court ruling.
However, unless you’re in an unusual boat—that is, you’re absolutely, hands-down sure that a YEAR from now you will be applying ONLY to Test Blind/Test Free colleges—you need to take the SAT or ACT. Why? Because you will either be REQUIRED to submit a test score with your application, or you may at least BENEFIT from submitting an excellent SAT or ACT test score (because Test Optional schools still look at and consider the scores you choose to give them).
And if making the choice to test means you ultimately end up doing extra work (prepping and taking a test that, A YEAR FROM NOW, you realize you didn’t need to take), well…frankly, so what? When did learning reading comprehension, proper grammar and editing skills, basic math, and data interpretation skills ever hurt anyone? NEVER, that’s when.
So my best advice to you as you navigate standardized testing, Class of 2025, is this: take the test.
You might end up being one of the few who ultimately won’t need to submit an SAT or ACT score in the end, but in all likelihood that will not be the case. So pick your test, pick your Testing Timeline, and funnel any fears and nervous energy into doing something that will actually get you into college—landing a fantastic SAT or ACT score!
And if you need help doing so in the most streamlined way possible, consider working one-on-one with me.
Or, if you’re more of a self-study type who doesn’t want to work with a private tutor, I have GREAT news for you: I have a whole suite of ebooks and online courses for each section of the SAT and ACT!:
