The key to surreptitious workarounds is to keep them surreptitious.
That may be the case for Georgetown University, which just had one of its former admissions officers acknowledge efforts to circumvent the Supreme Court’s rulings against the unconstitutional use of race in college admissions.
After the historic ruling in the Harvard and North Carolina cases barring the use of racial criteria in admissions, administrators and academics admitted what they had long denied: that race was having a major role in admissions.
In anticipation of the rulings, many schools eliminated standardized testing, including the California system. Without objective scores, there is less ability to identify the use of non-scholastic criteria for admissions. By eliminating or devaluing standardized testing, admissions offices can use the more subjective essays to achieve the same race-based results.
I wrote about how administrators were already preparing to use essays as an indirect way to achieve the same identifications and preferences in admissions. The essay “prompts” encourage students to effectively self-identify by discussing incidents where they faced discrimination. The shift to the essays would allow the removal of high-scoring students while elevating those with lower scores. That prediction was quickly confirmed, as top candidates were rejected based on their essays, while schools used the essays to flag their backgrounds.
The use of essays as a workaround was reinforced in the opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts, who noted that minority students could still raise their own individual struggle with racial discrimination in essays. Yet Roberts stressed that schools cannot employ threshold classifications to give an advantage or disadvantage based on race.
In an interview on National Public Radio’s “Code Switch” show with its host Gene Demby, former Georgetown University admissions officer Aya Waller-Bey said the quiet part out loud.
Waller-Bey discussed “how admissions essays are used to help colleges bring in the type of students that they want.” Demby explores how, after the opinions, universities can still achieve “the kind of diversity that is seen as valuable and visible in the elite spaces.”
Waller-Bey reduced it to a single word: essays.
WALLER-BEY: Yeah, that’s an interesting question. I mean, I think, increasingly so universities have to really be mindful of their institutional priorities right now because of the constraints placed on by the federal administration. So I think identities such as first-gen and low-income are actually becoming incredibly important. I think admissions officers and universities are trying to figure out how to mark students in the process. How can we identify students? How could we categorize them in ways that are, like, compliant and, like, constitutional? You know, because they…
DEMBY: Right, they won’t get you, like…
WALLER-BEY: Sued.
DEMBY: …Flagged for – yeah, exactly.
… But the consequence is students are now saying, “OK, they need me to disclose so they can see me in this process. They need to know my background, my identity. They need to know I’m first-gen. They need to know I’m low-income. They need to know I’m Black. They need to know all these things so they can see me qualitatively now – right?” – because of the limitations post the 2023 race – decision on race-conscious admissions.
As a threshold issue, it is not just “constraints placed by the current federal administration” but the Constitution.
The use of essays as a system of racial identification was predictable. Roberts is right that students should be able to discuss their past challenges, and such experiences can be powerful demonstrations of character and leadership. However, the use of such essays for a “code switch” to maintain racial preferences is dishonest and unconstitutional.
The only way to preserve the important role of essays without creating a new race-based admissions system is to maintain transparency in the use of standardized scores.
As I have previously written, such personal statements can and should continue to offer value for admissions, as tie-breakers within established bands of objective scores. While grade point averages are important, GPAs have also been subject to grade inflation and there is inconsistency between high schools. That is why standardized testing should remain the primary, but not exclusive, measure for admissions. While scores should place students within bands of applicants, essays can move the ranking of students within those bands.
The NPR interview was merely an acknowledgment of what is already widely known about the use of essays by the same administrators in higher education to achieve the same race-based results. What remains unclear is whether donors and (in state schools) legislators will insist on greater transparency and objectivity in admissions.
So writing an essay is still a means to determine admission by race? It’s never enough it seems. Conservatives have alwasy howled about the lack of admissions based on merits. But now writing an essay which does show skills and expresses understanding of whatever subject the writer chooses is strictly about merit. But alas some conservatives still don’t think it is blind enough.
It might show skill it might not. It depends on how the essay is evaluated and used. Surely an equal mixture of objective and subjective evaluation would be the most fair.
I was wrong. I thought nobody clung to racism more tenaciously than the Confederate States of America, then the Ku Klux Klan. But today’s Democrat party clings to racism more ferociously and deviously than its forebears in the CSA and KKK combined. They have not changed one bit in 165 years.
when all those dixiecrats left the party which party did they join
None.
hahahaha haha. you know where they went. theyre g.o.p.ers now
true. good point. they are obsessed, violent, radical, bitter, hateful and pre-judge everyone based on bull.
Odd how that happened isn’t it. It’s genetic.
Be honest. In a purely meritocratic college admissions system, 25 years from now Asian-Americans will occupy most positions of power and leadership in America. Unless “founding” American ethnicities (Native, Euro, African, Hispanic) start raising children the way Asian-American parents do (self-disciplined, high expectation), circumvention of the 2024 Supreme Court decision will be needed to “unfairly advantage” YOUR grandkids.
Pure meritocracy is a tough master. Make sure you understand what that implies for your progeny. Being competitive isn’t merely a slogan. It’s a lifelong, multigenerational lifestyle commitment.
pbinca – things are more complex than that.
Absolutely asian americans outperform other races in very specific areas – and they will dominate in those areas – even in a system that is not purely meritocratic.
But the areas that Asian americans dominate are not the totality of human acheivement. Asian americans under perform is other areas.
None of this (admissions profiling by any means) matters in the U.S. anymore, as Americans have been ‘priced-out’ of a Collegiate Education. The cost are so high and unsustainable that the decline in the Institution and Academics are inevitable.
Online Degree Graduates are not delivering the success this Nations needs. This is the downward trajectory of the Collegiate system.
Other Countries that offer Lower or Zero Cost to Collegiate Education have the advantage. Enough said.
An education will always be ‘worth it’ if it is obtainable at a reasonable sacrifice. Time is the Student’s/Person’s most valuable asset, People are calculating this more often now.
It’s robbery.
Use a random number generator to determine admission.
Then can save money on admission officers.
Or, set a standard of preparation that can be objectively measured, and guarantee admission to all students who can meet the standard. Psychologists call that a “deterministic, operant award” — the strongest motivation — since it puts the student in the drivers’ seat to control their future.
“Or, set a standard of preparation that can be objectively measured, and guarantee admission to all students who can meet the standard.”
Or, make Federal and possibly State government cease and desist from aiding colleges and universities in any way, shape or form, allow those institutions to admit and instruct however they damned please, and let the market decide which ones survive on the basis of demonstrated graduate success. Making that happen on the Federal level should be easy, since the explicitly enumerated powers mention nothing about education.
Epstein had a high IQ.
“Well done NPR”, which is an abbreviation term for “not particularly relevant”
As I’ve said before, progressives, like all jihadi types, that have been indoctrinated in a sort of quasi-martyrdom fashion, will not deter from their course for any legal/logical reason. I compare them to termites that have silently invaded your wouldn’t home and are eating away at it from inside until it is totally consumed. The only cure for termites is to tent the home and exterminate them. How we rid our education/media industry of our own termites is a question that must, most speedily, be answered before it is too late. (Just look to Europe if you want to see your future if we do not).
ok boomer. time for a nap.
@Anonymous
Why do you assume everyone that disagrees with you is a boomer? Is your mind really that small? I am not a boomer, and your angst against your parents played out as some kind of righteous reaction has no relevance to me.
Ha, ha! I kid. I realize you are a troll, and that you would do this for money means the answer is unequivocally, ‘Yes.’. Stop pretending dollars aren’t what motivate you, too, and I’d be surprised if you even resided in this country; in fact, you are the worst of the worst in that regard.
Just drive by, sh**, and get paid. Nice gig. You are pathetic, and history will not be kind to you when so many of us, most of us, in fact, actually still care. I am certain that in-between your posts you are taking tokes and clicking OnlyFans or Chaturbate. Yes, ‘old’ people know about these things and what they have done to the likes of you. Thankfully, we know better. It’s why we are still in charge, and will be, until even you yourself are ‘old’, and when you are in the gutter in the future, you’ll be glad we did. Open your mind, and use a little foresight if asking for basic human compassion is too much for you.
ok pervy boomer
@whimsicalmama
I do, too. I don’t know how we fix the university problem without a full-scale fumigation. It is the one area where the infestation is pretty much complete; again, at least at the university level, from the tiniest community college to the Ivy Leagues. You can’t take any type of college course anymore without encountering at the least a seasoning of this. We are going to have to burn it down and start over, methinks, and I honestly don’t know what that means or how it would play out. But nevertheless, it is, and a good start would be foolish people thinking they are paying their Alma Mater to give their kids what the received to stop sending money, or sending their kids. What it has taken to get people to even begin to have an inkling about this is flat out stupid. So much for the ‘educated class’.
then how did we get Abe Lincoln?
I think that, like, universities should like definitely give, like, preference to, like, applicants who use, like, “like ” most frequently in their, like, admission essays because it is, like, a super-good way to, like, identify, the best, like, students. Like, don’t you think?
Good post! Reminds me of posts by those (typically younger readers) who use the term “you know” in their discussions with others, “you know”? What is shows is their minds are moving faster than their mouths which is trying to catch up.
I feel like v. I think.
Imagine that. Using essays to get around a SC ruling.
Sorry…but the standardized test scores should be the only marker for admission…. anything else will be abused.
In some majors, portfolios should also be considered. Also noteworthy projects, like entrepreneurial success.
Race/ethnicity should be completely suppressed / ignored. That said, factors that correlate with race/ethnicity (foreign vs. US vs. in-state, family economic status) are fine so long as conducted under a written policy.
What is wrong with our society and educational system when we have to find ways around equality, so that we can discriminate against those not of our chosen group. How many years have we tried to be color blind and treat individuals as individuals. If I remember correctly it was the left that was so vocal (60’s) about treating individuals fairly and here they are discriminating because they want to seem like goody two shoes people. It seems to me, that their goal is not to provide a good education but to pander and prove their position in the leftist world. If they were truly interested in lifting people up they would demand or require better results not just stories that anyone can make up. We are at a critical time where education is important as to the progress and political stability for the world. If we continue to degrade our college education how will we maintain our leadership in innovation.
It just makes me sick to see discrimination in any form and accomplished by any means.
Rcs, it’s competition by any means. There isn’t an understanding of abundance. The goose that laid the golden eggs is not finite. That’s capitalism.
I sat in the crowd with other parents as the President (now former) of Hamiliton College(became president of Harvard’s Graduate school of Education)…said they would IGNORE Supreme Court on Admissions and use the Essay to KEEP racial BIAS College admission. He OPENLY stated he WOULD BREAK THE LAW!!!
Time to END Federal Aid to colleges, backing of student loans and States(to eliminate funding of public schools with state money). Also Outlaw public unions, the Democrats’ Army!
Democrats UNDERSTAND when the MONEY goes away….heck that is point of their government…to TAKE YOUR MONEY!
Taking the money is also the point of modern educational institutions… but only the ‘right’ kind of money. Yours.
And the ‘right’ purpose. Theirs.
“Taking the money is also the point of modern educational institutions… but only the ‘right’ kind of money. Yours.
And the ‘right’ purpose. Theirs.”
At least without Federal financial support, the only losers in the event bad decisions are made in choosing a university are the parents and students directly involved in that choice. The rest of us (taxpayers) could stop being involuntary victims.
It is legal for schools to pick students based on traits that lead to the same outcome as race. This is just like drawing gerrymandered maps based on political party.
Sally, that’s a fantastic point!
Sally is correct.
If there is no problem with politicians choosing their voters, what is the problem with colleges choosing their students ??
Professor Turley, remember when Susan Wild (D-PA) addressed the Law School graduates in 2022 and told them “Do what you know is right, and let the law catch up to you”? Well apparently the GW admissions office got the memo.
The former admission officer seemed to be sating, “Look how good we were at cheating.”
So what? Good on them.
Hell yeah GW – an essay full of Ebonics be the Sh!t, if u no’s what I’s mean? That surely demonstrates an edge in the civilized world of business and keeps it REAL, right? Cultural diversity makes America a better place – ifs youz no’s whats I meanz.
ok racist.
Justice Roberts is an exceedingly bright man. Just like I and probably everyone else instantly new what would happen with the essay exception, I have no doubt so did he.
Ironically, an essay about facing discrimination could be written by students who are being discriminated against by the very schools demanding the essays.
The reason the essays highlight struggle is exactly how Roberts wanted them to use them, to self-identify their struggles, not just race per se. So, the question is are the struggles the action for admission, or their race gender and identity the actual reason?
Do struggles identify potential, or just victim status? Seems standardized tests-which measure to some degree, knowledge, also (should) demonstrate reasoning ability.
All they needed to do was to assess the narrative for the employment of African American Vernacular English/Ebonics, as well as predetermined socio-economic and cultural cues, and assign it a relative score.
Racism to fight racism will be the left’s downfall.
Really, seems to be working just fine. And they’re advertising it on NPR for other schools to implement. Well done NPR!
Still better then the right’s policy of racism because they are racist.