Can College Application Essays Still Discuss Race?
Credit: mapodile / Getty Images- A recent “Dear Colleague” letter from the Education Department instructed colleges to eliminate all DEI-related programming.
- The sweeping array of concerns includes college application essays.
- In its 2023 decision banning race-conscious admissions, the U.S. Supreme Court identified essays as a means for students to discuss race.
- The directive may be challenged in court, and the nature of application essays remains unclear.
In what may be remembered as the Valentine’s Day Massacre 2.0, a Feb. 14 “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education showed higher education anything but love.
The four-page missive, issued by Craig Trainor, acting assistant secretary for civil rights, warns educational institutions to eradicate any vestiges of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programming.
Its language mirrors President Donald Trump’s various executive orders on DEI affecting nearly every sector of the economy, claiming colleges and universities have embraced “pervasive and repugnant race-based preferences and other forms of racial discrimination” and calling diversity a “nebulous concept.”
Colleges were given 14 days to right their ship lest they risk losing federal funding, including student financial aid.
While the letter grounds its legal arguments in the protections provided by Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause, it offers a more recent rationale: the 2023 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard case, in which the U.S. Supreme Court banned race-conscious admissions.
Although Harvard applies specifically to the consideration of race in college admissions, some argue the intent of the ruling is much broader and should apply to all aspects of higher education, such as earmarking scholarships for people of color and making faculty hiring decisions.
That’s the stance taken in Trainor’s letter. It claims the Supreme Court’s “holding applies more broadly” and that activities should be subject to a simple litmus test: “If an educational institution treats a person of one race differently than it treats another person because of that person’s race, the educational institution violates the law.”
As such, the letter claims federal law covers not only admissions but also “hiring, promotion, compensation, financial aid, scholarships, prizes, administrative support, discipline, housing, graduation ceremonies, and all other aspects of student, academic, and campus life.”
Specifically regarding admissions, the letter notes colleges “may not use students’ personal essays, writing samples, participation in extracurriculars, or other cues as a means of determining or predicting a student’s race and favoring or disfavoring such students.”
Colleges also cannot eliminate standardized testing to “achieve a desired racial balance or to increase racial diversity,” even though, ironically, the post-pandemic reinstatement of testing among many elite colleges rests on the rationale that tests serve a valuable purpose in identifying high-achieving applicants from underrepresented backgrounds.
“When used thoughtfully as part of a whole-person review process,” Yale University noted in its public announcement on reinstatement, “tests can help increase rather than decrease diversity in our class,” while inviting students to apply without test scores “can, inadvertently, disadvantage students from low-income, first-generation, and rural backgrounds.”
Yet the letter’s mention of personal essays raises thornier questions considering the majority opinion in Harvard.
In the court’s 6-3 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts suggested students might use college application essays to address their racial identity.
“At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university,” Roberts wrote.
A later clarification, however, rendered this loophole somewhat confusing. Roberts insisted that “universities may not simply establish through application essays or other means the regime we hold unlawful today.”
In other words, the essay cannot become a proxy for the racial “checkbox” universities use to identify race in the strictest sense, but it can help provide an opportunity for students to address “challenges bested, skills built, or lessons learned.”
Despite this inherent opacity, colleges rushed to refashion their essay prompts following the late June SCOTUS decision. At Sarah Lawrence College, one prompt directly referenced the court’s ruling, asking students to draw upon “examples from your life, a quality of your character, and/or a unique ability you possess” and “describe how you believe your goals for a college education might be impacted, influenced, or affected by the court’s decision.”
Other institutions took a more subtle tack. Babson College, for example, asked students to “share something about your background, lived experiences, or viewpoint(s) that speaks to how you will contribute to and learn from Babson’s collaborative community.”
But now, thanks to the letter’s position on personal essays, what are colleges to do? Should they revise their prompts to eliminate any mention, any hint, of race?
Changes to prompts would have to be implemented for the next admissions cycle beginning in the fall, though the letter’s directive implies colleges must disregard racial cues in application materials beginning immediately — even as they’re currently considering candidates for admission.
And cues are everywhere, not just in essays. Surnames, neighborhoods, high schools, and native languages all suggest racial identity to some extent. The admissions office’s job, according to these instructions, is to disregard all such cues in making the final decision and not let a thumb land anywhere near the scale.
Not so fast, says Liliana Garces, a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. In a Chronicle of Higher Education essay, Garces advises college leaders to pump the brakes on heeding this guidance.
She claims the letter “widely expands, without any legal authority, the parameters of the court’s decision” and says colleges “should remain focused on areas that the Supreme Court addressed in its majority opinion and not expand to those clearly outside its purview.”That, presumably, includes college application essays.
What’s more, Garces points to the letter’s own admission that it lacks “the force and effect of law and does not bind the public or create new legal standards.”
The department promises that “additional legal guidance will follow in due course,” while some legal analysts assume this directive will be challenged in the courts much like Trump’s previous executive orders targeting DEI programming.
And what about the Supreme Court’s own language on essays as a means for conveying racial identity and character? Might the court uphold its stance in light of this new challenge?Meanwhile, the clock continues to tick for colleges, which had been given until the end of February to make necessary adjustments. Will they receive a stay of execution or a total reprieve?
If neither, the world of college admissions — not to mention higher education writ large — will have to find ways to navigate this rapidly shifting landscape.