A Confusing New World for College Applicants

from New York Times I'm Michael babbaro. this is the. [Music]. daily last summer we begin tonight with. the Supreme Court striking down. affirmative action and reshaping College. admissions in a landmark ruling the US. Supreme Court overturned nearly 50 years. of precedent and banned the use of. affirmative action in college admissions. in a 6 to3 decision the justices ruled. that Harvard University and the.

University of North Carolina violated. the constitution in doing so the court. eliminated the single most powerful tool. for ensuring diversity on America's. college campuses and forced College. admissions officers and high school. seniors to figure out what the college. admissions process should look like when. race can no longer be taken into account. it's college application season a. stressful time for high school seniors. and their parents.

but now 6 months since affirmative. action was repealed things are even more. uncertain for many black students across. the country today daily producer Jessica. Chung documents how over the past year. both students and college officials. tried to navigate the new. rules it's Friday January. 5th.

so this past July just two weeks after. the Supreme Court ended affirmative. action I flew to Rochester New York to. meet some of the students were part of. this first historic class to apply to. college under an affirmative action ban. hello hi there how's it going how are. you good how are you I'm good I'm good a. group of about 90 High School seniors. had also flown in from all across the. country to Nazareth University they were. brought here by Pier for forward a.

nonprofit that helps mostly Black and. Hispanic students from low-income. communities apply to college and they. had gathered here for a workshop on how. to make their college essay stand. out we're going in now okay I walked. into a small classroom with an. instructor and five seniors who are. sitting facing a whiteboard scrubing. into their spiral notebooks with tips on. how to write the perfect college essay. we're envisioning that no no one else.

know who you are hundreds of students. they never met you they cannot see who. you. are so what makes you different the. college essay is a high Stak genre of. writing that is supposed to capture. everything a 17-year-old is and was and. everything he or she could offer to the. College of their dreams starting a essay. strong and with that high Stak stronga. are rules rules about what to do that's. a good thing that he just said a hook. write a hook what exactly do we mean by.

Show and Tell show don't tell do you. guys remember when we were in third or. fourth grade we would have to bring an. animal in and we would have to do what. well some schools had to bring an animal. but you had to bring something in and. rules about what not to do many of the. students told me about certain edicts. around the college essay don't write a. sob story no covid no dying grandparents. these are topics that won't set you. apart from the batch how can we help. what are some words we should be using. to help the reader visual ize what we're.

saying but what about an applicant's. race historically race could offer an. edge to these students but in its ruling. Banning affirmative action the Supreme. Court said that colleges couldn't do. that anymore using race as a factor. missions is no longer legal and to play. it safe many of the schools these kids. are applying to have decided to hide. what they call the race box which means. that while students might still check. the box that correspond sponsored their.

race the schools will be blind to it so. unlike any other applicants before them. this year's class of high school senors. face a new. dilemma with the race box gone the. question becomes Should students write. about race or should they avoid it all. together and could writing about race. actually work against them I think that. was an awesome job to tomorrow but by. the end of the session the instructor. never brought any of this up.

hi guys uh I'm Jess um so during their. lunch break I walked into the dining. hall to ask students of color how they. were all thinking about this was. wondering oh thank you I walked over to. a table strewn with pizza crust and left. over french fries and at that table I. met two kids sitting next to each other. their name Texs read Jordan Williams and. Franchesco msas from the Bronx some. clubs I'm in is ministers drama montal.

Jordan told me he wants to be a. corporate lawyer and Franchesco wants to. be an electrical engineer I've been like. really fascinated in like electronics. and like how they work I really like to. build stuff you know I like to design. things for great things have you design. anything I made a a mini Tesla coil oh. what you patiently explained to me that. a Tesla coil is a tightly bound coil of. wires that can produce the spark he made. it for his eighth grade science fair I. was watching this documentary on like.

Nicola Tesla and I like saw it and I was. like H maybe some people might made a. miniature model Franchesco comes by his. passion pretty. naturally I was born here by my parents. are from eador when his grandfather. immigrated from Ecuador in the 1960s he. settled in Queens doing laundry at a. hospital franchesco's dad grew up there. and eventually became a technician for. buildings around the. city so Franchesco grew grew up. tinkering and building stuff with his.

dad at one point they built a computer. he found on the sidewalk using spare. parts from other computers that were. thrown away I guess it's just really. affected my life when Franchesco was 12. he started watching YouTube videos of. Engineers exploding Coke bottles and. making roving. hoverboards and when he looked at where. many of these Engineers went to college. time and again he saw one name MIT and. that became his dream I really love. engineering Franchesco did everything.

right to make himself an attractive. candidate he's a 4.0 and he has more. extracurricular activities than he can. possibly list on the common application. which includes student body vice. president engineering club community. service woodworking School theater and. he's a third degree black belt in. Taekwondo but his test scores are lower. than mit's average and now he thinks the. Supreme Court's decision on affirmative. action won't give him the Boost normally.

given to Latino students like him have. they taken out the race which I don't. have that much of an upper hand with. mit's acceptance rate at just. 4.8% losing this upper hand feels like a. big loss and so other parts of his. application are rising to a new level of. importance most crucially his. essay so I'm going have to write. something that is about me you know he. told me he's writing about his leather.

briefcase cuz I found that bag at like a. thrift store for $10 that helped him. conquer his shyness helped him gain. confidence and make friends but he was. struggling with whether or not his story. should include his race do you think. that you might consider working in your. racial identity to your essay now that. you know that the the box is gone I. don't know cuz on one part it's like I. can show who I am like more more but on.

the other hand I don't want to sound too. redundant and then it's like it's kind. of like when they tell you like don't. write about a sa story cuz they read a. sa story all the time I just want to. write about me myself and you don't want. to talk about it not. really CU although yeah it's a part of. my identity but I don't really let it. Define me in a sense so it's one of. these things I mean I'll ask questions. for my other peers and the advisers see. what to do it is confusing especially.

cuz other generation was Jordan the. aspiring corporate lawyer was sitting. next to us quietly listening this whole. time um what did you write about I asked. what was in his essay so far I wrote. about one of my favorite movies and I. related it to my life what's the movie. Training Day He said the movie Training. Day taught him to question conventional. wisdom I always felt like there's a lot. of pressure to follow in the crowd but. if you question why am I following this. crowd when I can stand out myself so.

that's why I wrote about it Jordan told. me more about himself he could have. written about a lot of things as a black. kid raised by a single mom he knew his. biological dad but his dad chose not to. be an active part in Jordan's life and. so he would get himself into trouble. succumbing to Pure pressure but his. grandfather encouraged him to set his. own course in life and focus on school. and now he's an honorable student but. none of that was in his Training Day.

essay no not imp parent my essay at. all not imp parent of my would you. consider working it in your essay now. I'm black uh now that I'm thinking about. it. yeah how would you do that I don't even. know I don't even know that's ah I would. probably have to like say that I'm a. black kid from the BLS I guess I don't.

know that's crazy I didn't even think. about. that it's weird it's a weird. situation Franchesco and Jordan weren't. the only ones confused as I talked to. more students at the workshop it was. clear that the confusion over the ruling. was everywhere I am not really too. educated on like what's happening in the. government right now yeah I don't really. know what's going on they told me they. were worried and uncertain of what it. meant for them I was just like damn.

that's not going to help me I guess help. you CU I was kind of hoping it would but. one of my essays were actually like run. about like my identity my culture being. black and like Nigerian and I feel like. now that affirmative action is gone. colleges can actually say well we don't. really care about like your identity now. and there was panic over news it was. being shared on Instagram it says here. like in Missouri the Attorney General. directed all colleges to immediately. stop considering race and scholarships. about how the University of Missouri and.

the University of Kentucky would go. beyond the ruling and end race-based. scholarships some of my peers saying now. I can't apply to this school or now I. have to change this option and in the. absence of answers some were making up. their own sometimes wrongly you think. that students might redact that they. were part of like NAACP and yes oh wow. and so it's leading some students to. hide their race so was a plus before now.

you feel like it's a minus to get black. in the fear of that's too race related. so now you're hiding that um side of. yourself to make others feel better in a. way and with all of this misinformation. floating around lunch is over okay okay. thanks you're welcome have a good next. session you too I mean thank you these. questions and confusions eventually made. their way inside the classroom why is it. that into the next session when two. students sparred over if you don't. indicate your race in your essay would.

colleges know at all when you fill out. fast but you still have to enter the. race question so it's not going to be. just out of the question entirely not. like race isn't no question at all and. if you apply for financial aid as. students said they would know wouldn't. they but then now the concern comes in. is will they tackle that as well because. they're already having and if the. schools knew their race what would they. do with that information there was a. pause I waited for the adults in the. room to give some sort of answer so.

we're going to we're in our second. session as you can see the writing coach. gently guided their attention back to. class let's make sure that we're being. attentive want to be an active listener. so that we I eventually looked into this. and the schools in fact wouldn't know a. student's race from financial aid forms. but no one at the workshop told the kids. this so the writing Workshop continued. business as usual between classes I had.

asked the head of pure for which is. guiding all these kids how their. guidance would change as a result of the. affirmative action ban he said it. doesn't he told me they were still. waiting to hear more from colleges. themselves but how the ruling might. change their admissions. formula so after the workshop I started. reaching out to those admissions offices. and it turns out the people charged with. implementing the Court's decision are. just as confused as the students.

[Music]. applying we'll be right. back after my trip to the writing. Workshop in Rochester I wanted to get a. better understanding of how admissions. offices around the country were going to. change out of the thousand of. universities and colleges in the US a.

small percentage some put the number. around 10% are actually affected by the. decision the ones who are practicing. affirmative action in the first place. but the small percentage are the most. selective in the United States think the. top 100 colleges in the US News and. world report colleges that are known for. their outside ability to help students. from poor backgrounds become High. earners after graduation so these were. the colleges I started to.

call hi how's it going hey Jeff how are. you good are you hey Jeff Hi how are you. Gary thank you so much for taking the. time to talk um how are you doing today. I called over 30 people inside the. admissions. world so we're still trying to. understand you know uh I would say the. ruling specifically for Carlton and. we're working with our legal council to. ask some of these specific questions. misss offices never responded to my.

requests some admissions offices wanted. to talk but were vetoed by their general. counsel some would only talk to me off. the Record a college can be sued for. many many reasons in a time when there's. a substantial movement in the United. States that seems to be reacting against. even the mere idea of diversity and. that's because colleges are treading. this new terrain cautiously no school. wants to end up in the legal battle like. Harvard did who was a defendant on the. case that led to the overturning of.

affirmative. action the trial Unearthed embarrassing. discoveries about Harvard's notoriously. opaque admission System including. something called a personal score which. admissions officers used to rank traits. like an applicant's self-confidence and. likability and routinely scored Asian. applicants near the bottom in Harvard is. still being investigated for its Mission. practices but the other admissions off. officers that did talk to me started to.

give me a sense of what it's like inside. the. schools hey Matt hello hello Matt McAn. is the dean of Admissions and financial. aid at ammer College a small liberal. arts college in Massachusetts it has an. acceptance rate of 7% because we do want. to attract a diverse applicant pool we. do believe that a diverse student body. make for a better residential liberal.

arts education currently about half of. its student body are students of color. even before this decision race was never. by itself the reason why someone would. be admitted McAn told me that before the. ruling ammer achieved this diverse. student body in part by considering race. among a variety of factors do you play a. sport do you play the French horn born. did you grow up white and on a farm or.

black in an inner City race was just one. piece of the puzzle uh it was always one. of many parts of a whole person review. to better understand a student's context. to better understand a student's life. but never it by itself never a. determining Factor what McAn told me is. something I heard from every admissions. office I talked to that race by itself.

was not. determinative but the Supreme Court. disagreed saying that race was. determinative for a significant. percentage of admitted Black and. Hispanic students at Harvard and UNCC. and now places like amers have lost. their ability to consider race we're. going from a time where we can consider. everything that a student wants us to. consider to there being one aspect That. Remains. important in society that we must ignore.

when the affirmative action cases got to. the Supreme Court's St McAn along with. many administrators at ammer sent an. amas brief to the court and predicted. that without affirmative action the. number of black students on their. campuses will drop from 7% to 2% lawyers. I don't have a law degree although the. longer I do this I feel like my legal. expertise certainly is in um and after.

the Court's ruling McAn and his team at. ammer poured over the decision which. came in the form of a 237 page PDF you. know like we didn't get the chance to. ask the Supreme Court like all right so. we do this like so what now like it's. not a a stepbystep manual so we're left. with the work to figure out how we make. sure that we're compliance with. everything but what does being in.

compliance mean exactly unlike with. sports Orchestra and Geographic status. race is now off the table but what if. participating in an extracurricular like. the black student union has to do with. race how would that work and so just to. get specific like with an. extracurricular activity for instance. for a student says that they were a. member of the. BSU um how could that have been. considered before the affertive action.

ruling and what changes about it. after. so that cannot be put in the context. of uh. well so understanding a student's. participation in an AC. ity through a lens of racial status is.

something that at at the very least. cannot be as easily done. anymore we're still working on our. training and guideline language on how. the admission staff should approach. these. questions uh we're still working on that. [Music].

all right well thank you so much for. your time and um good luck with the next. admission cycle and again thank you for. the time it's been an interesting. conversation and I appreciate your. thoughtful approach to it so uh best. wishes. [Music]. cheers the Dina ammer isn't the only one. scratching his head over this rule R in. in several on and off the record.

conversations with current and former. deans of admissions they expressed. tremendous uncertainty about how all of. this is going to work how you not. consider race when it can be so apparent. in things like a student's. extracurriculars their last name their. essay. [Music]. topic but as I continued to talk to. admissions officers I finally started to. get somewhere the seem to all point to a. key passage in the decision that was in.

this moment of darkness kind of North. Star Chief Justice Roberts wrote it and. it goes 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 but he says a. benefit to a student who overcame racial. discrimination for example must be tied. to that student's courage and.

determination or a benefit to a student. whose Heritage or culture motivated him. or her to assume a leadership role or. attain a particular goal must be tied to. that student's unique ability to. contribute to the university in other. words the student must be treated on the. basis of his or her experiences as an. individual not on the basis of. race.

so what does that mean Robert says that. if a student does write about race you. as the emissions officer will now have. to connect race to a lived experience. like overcoming. discrimination then you'd have to. explain how overcoming discrimination. uniquely connects to the mission of the. college like how overcoming. discrimination shows resilience and. promise and these are the students that. we're looking. for the distinctions between race and. race as a lived experience is a granular.

distinction and I wasn't sure how it. would play. out but by the Fall as colleges launch. their applications on the Common App I. begin to notice a new kind of essay. question pop. [Music]. up over and over again I kept seeing. schools introduce new supplemental essay. prompts that draw words directly from. Robert's Passage. prompts like talk about lived.

experiences and how you could uniquely. contribute to their. campus it was a subtle change but a. change. nonetheless for example Brown University. used to ask its applicants to write. quote about a time when you were. challenged by a perspective that. differed from your own here it allowed. applicants to argue that by simply. belonging to a minority group other. students can learn from them and vice. versa it relied on a previous Supreme. Court president that says colleges can.

use affirmative action to create a. diverse learning. environment but after the overturning of. that precedent Brown replaced it with a. new prompt this year with words drawn. directly from Roberts it read share how. an aspect of your growing up has. inspired or challenged you and what. unique contributions this might allow. you to make to the brown. community. the key change here is that there is now.

a right kind of race essay and a wrong. kind and in the end I found that at. least 20 selective colleges including. several in the ivy league had changed. their essay questions this year using. words from Robert's passage but the. students this year will have a hard time. understanding this Distinction on their. own the plaintiffs will look at any. institution that doesn't see a dip and.

wonder were you like wink wink using a. proxy but really going against the law. so you know I want to be really clear. and I would want you to print that. Colorado College is going to follow the. law I know that it's an optimistic goal. to try to maintain compositional. diversity um and we probably won't to be. honest with you but I don't want to set. a goal that we will we we you know we've. got to set aspirational goals but you're. right that that um our numbers probably. will decline in my conversations with. the missions Deans they told me their.

schools were still committed to. diversity but the schools aren't a bit. of a bind if they produce the same level. of racial diversity in the incoming year. as the year before the ruling they put. themselves at legal risk the. anti-affirmative action opposition are. on the lookout for schools that behind. the closed doors of admissions offices. are practicing a kind of under the table. affirmative. action I talked to Jeff brenzel Who was. the dean of emissions at Yale but is now.

working with Morehouse College to figure. out what this new world of emissions is. starting to look like he crunched the. numbers he estimates that there will be. a 20 to 30% drop in Black enrollment in. the top 100 colleges he says he expects. HBCU like morouse to catch some of those. 20 to. 30% but it's unclear how many of those. students those colleges can actually. support and as for Latino students no. one I talked to has speculated on where.

they might wind. up I asked McAn ammer given all of this. whether students of color applying this. year who have a harder time getting into. schools schools like ammer I would hope. that that student would know that you. know nothing about this changes who they. are and it's incumbent upon the. colleges it's not the students job the. student should present themselves as.

wholly and fully and as best they can. and it's on the colleges to lawfully. consider uh and have an admission. process that allows them to live up to. their. [Music]. mission okay I have it on the recording. thing okay great and you're holding it. to your ear like you're on the phone. just weeks before franches submitted his. application to MIT I called him after.

school to start I would just love to. know like how you're feeling about the. applications you have so far oh I really. like it I feel that it speaks to who I. am I wanted to know where he landed. whether he ended up mentioning race in. his application essay. no I don't think I did I did try stay. away from it he says even though race is. still a big part of who he is it's not. the thing he wants admissions officers. to see I don't want to be categorized.

saying oh he's he's in. Hispanic then saying like oh look look. at what he's done he's done this he's. done that I was actually speaking to one. of my friends about it we were saying. it's essentially been like I guess. confined to like a box and it's like oh. what what race are you like Hispanic. right and I have pride for my race I'm. not saying like oh I'm. ashamed but specifically pertaining to. college application I want to show them. who I am as. a. person what my dreams are what I like.

what are my. aspirations who who I am when you think. about someone boxing you in because they. know your racial background what do you. think that boxing in is or what do you. think that boxing and means yeah I don't. want to be confined by saying oh they. have this preconceived notion of me. being Hispanic okay and and I don't know.

uh their their attitudes or their. feelings. but whether I like it or not there are. people in the world who don't like my. race or just they have differing. opinions and that's okay people have. their right to have their own opinions. but I want to go in saying who I am so. if I ever were to be confined in that. box essentially an issue for me it's a. it's a way to play safe yeah just play. it safe you know in a world where.

affirmative action was still practiced. by colleges and by admissions officers. where it would actually be a favor to. you would you have mentioned your racial. background if it were an adventage to me. then I'd take it but now that it's gone. I'd rather play it safe his decision is. fueled in part by the same narrative I. heard from the other students at the. workshop 6 months ago which is this. feeling of increasing trust Franchesco. knew that affirmative action guaranteed.

that his race could only help him but. now that that protection is gone he's. worried that the Discrimination he sees. everywhere else in the world could now. enter the admissions process CU at the. end of the day the world is not a kind. place as much as I don't like it I got. to deal with it especially heading into. the adult. [Music]. world it's it's kind of scary and.

confusing but I'm also trying to keep an. open. mind. and just figure my way out through this. world this new world I'm. entering a few weeks ago I met up with. Jordan who if you remember was working. on his essay on the movie Training Day. he ended up scrapping that all together. he said he thought more about the. Court's ruling and unlike Franchesco he.

decided he would not only mention his. race but he was going to dedicate the. topic of his essay to his identity about. growing up as a black kid in the Bronx. he. said if the Supreme Court ruling says. race doesn't matter he's saying Race. Matters to me and this is. how and that's the choice a generation. of 17-year-olds is having to make in a. moment as formative as applying a. college do they choose to Define.

themselves by their race like Jordan or. do they hide their race like. Franchesco and while that choice may or. may not mean the difference between. getting in and not it will almost. certainly shape how they see themselves. and how they think the world sees. [Music]. them.

[Music]. we'll be right. [Music]. back. here's what else you need to another day.

the Islamic state has claimed. responsibility for the bombing attack. that killed 84 people in Iran on. Wednesday a claim that according to the. times aligns with an intelligence. assessment by American officials the. claim is significant because some. Iranian leaders had initially sought to. blame Israel for the attack raising. fears that Israel's war in Gaza could. widen into a regional conflict now that. Isis has said it was responsible that.

possibility seems less. likely and new documents released by. Congressional Democrats show that during. Donald Trump's presidency his businesses. received at least $7.8 million from 20. foreign governments most of it from. China the transactions offer concrete. evidence that Trump engaged in the kind. of conduct that congression Republicans. allege that President Biden did as they.

try so far without success to build a. case for impeaching. him today's episode was reported and. produced by Jessica Chung with help from. will Reed it was edited by Lindsay. Garrison and Michael benois fact checked. by Susan Lee contains original music by. Maran Lozano Pat mccusker and Rowan.

nisto and was engineered by Alysa Moxley. our theme music is by Jim brunberg and. Ben lurk of. [Music]. [Music]. wonderly that's it for the daily I'm. Michael borro see you on. [Music].

Monday.