Elite colleges have "rolled out new application questions this fall to provide students with opportunities to discuss their racial identities while complying with the Supreme Court decision" banning race-conscious admissions, reports Liam Knox on Inside Higher Ed.
Yale applicants can choose one of three new essay prompts, he writes. "They can describe a community they feel a strong connection to, discuss how an element of their personal experience has shaped them or reflect on a conversation with someone who holds different viewpoints than they do."
I can just imagine Joe Biden's essay on how he was raised in the black, Jewish, Puerto Rican, Greek, Polish and Italian community.
Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the affirmative action cases against Harvard and the University of North Carolina, dropped its lawsuit against Yale this week, after the university agreed to change its admissions policies, writes Knox.
Yale will make the ban on considering race clear to admissions staff, ensure that those making decisions will not access data on the racial identity of individual applicants and ensure that race is not a factor in financial aid offers.
Yale also will change recruitment to “expand outreach” and “build a culture of belonging," the university declared. In addition to recruiting students from lower-income families and high-poverty areas, Yale will launch a college-prep summer program for "underrepresented" students and strengthen "pipeline programs for New Haven public high school students."
We'll see how it works out. I wonder how many students will choose to stress their openness to considering other viewpoints. Will Asian Americans still feel the need to seem less Asian?