What s Next for College Admissions? – by Peter Arcidiacono
In the wake of the Supreme Court decisions in SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. UNC landmark rulings that deemed affirmative action, as we know it, unconstitutional we are approaching a real turning-point.
Colleges can follow the clear intention of the Supreme Court s ruling and embark on a different approach to admissions seizing the opportunity to bring greater transparency to the admissions process or they can continue with an even murkier version of ongoing policies, effectively trying to hide their criteria for acceptance.
What is apparent is that colleges are in a difficult spot. Both Harvard and the University of North Carolina argued in front of the Supreme Court that not explicitly considering race would result in unacceptable losses in enrollment of black students. Indeed, my analysis in the Harvard case (I testified for the plaintiffs as an expert witness) showed that if Harvard did nothing but drop race from their admissions decisions the number of Black admits overall would fall by over 60%, a staggering number.
We can safely assume that Harvard is going to work hard to avoid such a precipitous drop. But the analysis done by Harvard s own expert would seem to compel them to drastically overhaul their admissions philosophy. Harvard could significantly mitigate diversity losses by getting rid of preferences for legacies and donors. They could also modify their athletic preferences, where the biggest bumps are given. (Harvard offers more varsity sports than any school in the country.) While it is one thing to give preferences for football and basketball (sports that are accessible at all income levels), it is another thing to give massive preferences for sports like sailing and golf. Yet Harvard to date has shown no signs of eliminating (or even mitigating) these preferences for the rich despite increasing public pressure to remove them perhaps an indication that Harvard is deeply concerned that such an overhaul would affect alumni giving.
So, having passed up the most obvious reform, how will schools such as Harvard and UNC change their admissions policies in response to the rulings?