by Astrid Delgado first wrote her college application essay about the death of a family member. She then reframed it around a Spanish book that she read as a way to connect with her Dominican heritage.
Deshayne Curley wanted to leave her indigenous background out of her essay. But he modified it to focus on an inherited necklace that reminded her of his home on the Navajo Reservation.
The first draft of Jyel Hollingsworth’s essay explored her love of chess. The finale focused on the prejudices between his Korean and African-American families and the financial difficulties he overcame.
All three students said they decided to rethink their essays to emphasize a key element: their racial identities. And they did so after the Supreme Court last year struck down affirmative action in college admissions, leaving essays the only place for applicants to directly indicate their racial and ethnic origins.
High school students who graduated this year worked on their college applications, which are due this month, in one of the most turbulent years in American education. Not only did they have to prepare them in the context of the war between Israel and Hamas, which sparked debates about free speech and anti-Semitism on college campuses, leading to the resignation of two Ivy League presidents, but they also had to to get around the new ban. on racially conscious admissions.
“It’s been a lot to take in,” said Keteyian Cade, a 17-year-old from St. Louis. “There’s a lot going on in the world right now.”
The court ruling was aimed at making college admissions race-blind: Answers to the race and ethnicity question on applications are now hidden from admissions committees. TO recent Gallup poll found that nearly two-thirds of Americans showed support for banning affirmative action. Some strongly believe that race should not be considered during the admissions process.
“I think it’s wrong,” said Edward J. Blum, president of Students for Fair Admissions, the group that brought the case to the Supreme Court.
But the ruling also allowed admissions officers to consider race in personal essays, as long as decisions were not based on race, but on personal qualities that emerged from the applicant’s experience with their race, such as courage or courage.
This led many students of color to reframe their essays around their identities, under the advice of college counselors and parents. And several found that the rewriting experience helped them explore who they are.
Sophie Desmoulins, who is Guatemalan and lives in Sedona, Arizona, wrote her college essay with the court’s ruling in mind. Her personal statement explored, among other things, how her indigenous traits affected her self-esteem and how her experience volunteering with the Kaqchikel Mayan people helped her build confidence and embrace her heritage.
For Julia Nguyen, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who lives in Biloxi, Mississippi, rewriting her essay made her more aware of how her family’s upbringing shaped her. Julia, 18, said she felt “more proud to have this personal statement because of the affirmative action case.”
In Keteyian’s case, he said he felt “much more passionate” about his essay after changing his focus. As a black student interested in engineering… a field that has struggled to diversify its ranks — Keteyian concluded his personal statement with a mix of fear and hope.
“Accepting the possibility that I am one of the few black people in my workplace is intimidating,” she wrote, “but it is something to prepare for if the ruling stands, and an opportunity to rewrite reality.”
While some parents said they were glad their children could reflect on their identities in their essays, others feared the court ruling would make it harder for their children to find a community while in college.
“Even with affirmative action in place, it’s always a struggle for people in our community to get to college and succeed in college,” said Deshayne’s mother, Guila Curley, a college counselor on the Navajo Reservation in New Mexico.
Not all students appreciated the rewriting experience as much. Some found that the ruling made them feel like they were not writing for themselves, but for someone else.
In her opening essay, Triniti Parker, a 16-year-old who aspires to be the first doctor in her family, remembered her late grandmother, who was one of the Chicago Transit Authority’s first black bus drivers.
But after the Supreme Court decision, a college advisor told him to make clear references to his race, saying it should not be “lost in translation.” Triniti then adjusted a description of his and his grandmother’s physical features to allude to the color of her skin.
The new details gave her pause. “I felt like she was following someone else’s rules,” she said. Triniti added: “Now it seems like people of color have to say something or if we don’t, we’re going to be overlooked.”
Some decided to put aside their careers altogether. Karelys Andrade, who is Ecuadorian and lives in Brooklyn, focused her essay on her family who faced eviction during the pandemic and she was forced to live in a shelter. “That experience was a story that needed to be told,” said 17-year-old Karelys.
In previous years, some Asian American students avoided writing about their heritage, thinking that affirmative action was largely unfavorable to them, said Mandi Morales, an adviser at Bottom Line, a nonprofit for first-generation college applicants that primarily serves students of color. But the end of affirmative action on college campuses led some to reconsider, counselors said.
Ms. Morales cited one student who added a mention of his “conservative” Chinese family as an example. “Explicit disclosure of her ethnicity would not have made it into the final draft before the ruling,” she said.
Some experts argue that the court ruling encourages students to write about racial conflict, trauma and adversity. Natasha Warikoo, a professor of humanities and social sciences at Tufts University, said Supreme Court justices “expect a story of adversity to play the role that race played when we had race-conscious admissions.”
But Joe Latimer, director of college counseling at Northfield Mount Hermon School in Massachusetts, said he believes it is not necessary for students to “sell their trauma.” Instead, he advises his students to present their identities as “strengths-based,” showing the positive traits they have built from their experiences as people of color.
Critics of affirmative action say they worry that essays will become a loophole for colleges to consider an applicant’s race. “My concern is that the system will be gamed,” said William A. Jacobson, a law professor at Cornell University who founded the nonprofit. Equal Protection Project.
Since the court ruling, colleges and universities have affirmed their commitment to diversity, and some officials said their institutions will continue to encourage it through outreach activities and tools like Landscape, a database with information about the school and neighborhood of an applicant. And officials have said race can still influence decisions, as long as they are based on the applicant’s character and his connection to the university’s mission.
But some students, including Delphi Lyra, a Northfield senior who is half-Brazilian, have reservations about the new admissions environment.
“The idea behind the ruling is not to check any boxes,” said Delphi, 18, referring to the issue of race and ethnicity in the applications. “But I think in some ways it has almost even created a greater need to check a box.”
