Astrid Delgado first wrote her college application essay about a death in her family. She then reshaped it around a Spanish book she read as a way to connect with her Dominican heritage.
Deshayne Curley wanted to leave his Native ancestry out of his essay. But he reworked it to focus on an heirloom necklace that reminded him of his home on the Navajo reservation.
Jyel Hollingsworth’s first draft of her essay explored her love of chess. The finale focused on the prejudice between her Korean and Black American families and the economic hardships she overcame.
All three students said they decided to rework their essays to highlight a key element: their racial identity. 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 mention their racial and ethnic background.
High school seniors who graduated this year worked on their college applications, due this month, in one of the most tumultuous years in American education. Not only did they have to prepare them in the context of the Israel-Hamas war — which has 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 navigate the new ban on racial admissions.
“It was a lot to take in,” said Keteyian Cade, a 17-year-old from St. Louis. “There’s so much going on in the world right now.”
The court’s ruling was intended to make college admissions blind — answers to the race and nationality question on applications are now hidden from admissions committees. A 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 in the admissions process.
“I think it’s wrong,” said Edward J. Blum, the president of Students for Fair Admissions, the group that brought the case to the Supreme Court.
But the decision 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 toughness or courage.
This led many students of color to reframe their essays around their identity, under the advice of college counselors and parents. And several found that the experience of rewriting helped them explore who they are.
Sophie Desmoulins, who is Guatemalan and lives in Sedona, Ariz., wrote her college essay with the court’s decision in mind. Her personal statement explored, among other things, how being indigenous influenced her self-esteem and how her experience volunteering with the Kaqchikel Maya people helped her build confidence and embrace her heritage.
For Julia Nguyen, a child of Vietnamese immigrants based in Biloxi, Miss., rewriting her essay made her more aware of how her family 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 approach. As a black student interested in engineering—a field that has struggled to diversify its classes— Keteyian concluded his personal statement with a mixture of fear and hope.
“Coming to terms with the possibility of being one of the few black people in my workplace is intimidating,” she wrote, “but something to prepare for if the decision stands and an opportunity for me to rewrite reality.”
While some parents said they were glad their children reflected on their identity in their essays, others feared the court ruling would make it harder for their child to find community while in college.
“Even with affirmative action, 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 valued the re-enrollment experience as much. Some found that the decision made them feel like they were not writing for themselves, but for someone else.
In her original essay, Triniti Parker, a 16-year-old aiming to become the first doctor in her family, recalled her late grandmother, who was one of the first black female bus drivers for the Chicago Transit Authority.
But after the Supreme Court ruling, a college counselor told her to make clear references to her race, saying it shouldn’t get “lost in translation.” Thus, Triniti adapted a description of her and her grandmother’s physical features to refer to their skin color.
The new details made her pause. “It felt like I 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 looked at.”
Some decided to leave out their race altogether. Karelys Andrade, who is from Ecuador and lives in Brooklyn, kept her essay focused on her family facing eviction during the pandemic and being forced to live in a shelter. “This experience was a story that needed to be told,” Karelis, 17, said.
In years past, some Asian-American students avoided writing about their heritage, believing that affirmative action was largely against them, said Mandi Morales, an adviser to Bottom Line, a nonprofit organization for first-generation applicants that primarily targets students of color. But the end of affirmative action at colleges has led some to reconsider, consultants said.
Ms. Morales cited a student who added a reference to his “conservative” Chinese family as an example. “The explicit disclosure of his nationality would not have made it into the final draft before the decision,” he said.
Some experts argue that the court’s decision 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 history 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 doesn’t think it’s necessary for students to “sell their trauma.” Instead, he advises his students to present their identity as “strength-based,” showing the positive attributes they have built from their experiences as people of color.
Critics of affirmative action say they worry about the essays becoming a loophole for colleges to consider an applicant’s race. “My concern is that the system will be gamed,” said William A. Jacobson, a Cornell University law professor who founded the nonprofit Equal Protection Project.
After the court’s ruling, colleges and universities reaffirmed their commitment to diversity, and some officials said their institutions would continue to promote it through outreach and tools like Landscape, a database of information about the school and its neighborhood. applicant. And officials said the tribe can still make decisions, as long as they are based on the applicant’s character and 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 decision is not to check a box,” said Delphi, 18, referring to the issue of race and ethnicity on applications. “But I think, in a way, it’s almost created even more of a need to check a box.”
