The Supreme Court’s recent decision to overturn Affirmative Action has left college-bound high school seniors and admissions offices alike grappling with the future of campus diversity.
This landmark ruling dismantles decades of precedent, eliminating a tool that many institutions used to consider race in admissions decisions. Originally established to address racial inequities in education, affirmative action helped countless minority students overcome systemic barriers to college access.
As a high school senior navigating the college process in this new era, I’m watching my peers approach identity in nuanced and creative ways, especially around race. Without affirmative action, students from underrepresented backgrounds are responding with a new kind of creativity and vulnerability. Instead of demographic data, personal narratives are becoming the conduit for expressing how race and culture have influenced us.
By incorporating race as one factor in admissions, colleges aimed to create environments where students could learn not only from their professors but also from one another’s vastly different lived experiences.
Now, with that door closed, colleges are searching for new ways to promote diversity, while students from marginalized backgrounds face a new dilemma: how — or if — to address their racial identities in applications. Many are realizing that, though race can no longer be explicitly considered, it remains an essential part of who they are. In response, they are choosing to incorporate it subtly, yet powerfully, into their personal essays.
In the two Supreme Court decisions Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions v. University of North Carolina, Chief Justice John Roberts clarified that while universities can no longer explicitly consider race as a standalone factor, students are still free to discuss how race has shaped their lives, experiences and character.
As Roberts wrote in the majority opinion, “Nothing in this opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration or otherwise.”
He emphasized that race may still influence admissions decisions, as long as it’s embedded within a broader narrative of personal growth, resilience or values — not as a basis for preference.
In other words, students can still share stories that bring their backgrounds to life. When race and culture are integral to their journey, they can add depth to an application in ways that grades and test scores simply cannot. The key is to ground these insights in a story about who they are — not just as a marker of diversity, but as a reflection of character.
Personally, I’ve watched friends from diverse backgrounds grapple with how to include these parts of themselves in their essays.
My Chinese American friend, for example, wrote about her journey toward embracing her identity through makeup. She spent years conforming to Eurocentric beauty standards, tweaking her appearance to fit in. But as she explored makeup trends that celebrated her natural features, she began to see the beauty in her Chinese heritage. Her story captures the complexities of race, media and self-worth — layers that add dimension to her application.
Another friend, Haitian American, centered her essay on the complex dynamics of her family. Growing up in a divided household, she wrestled with the tension between her father’s absence and the Haitian cultural values that emphasize family loyalty. Her essay reflects the push and pull between personal pain and cultural pride — a narrative that resonates with many first- and second-generation students balancing tradition with individual growth.
Reading these essays, I see the richness that race and culture bring to an application. For some students, discussing identity offers a glimpse into aspects of themselves that grades and test scores simply cannot capture. When thoughtfully written, these stories reveal perspectives admissions officers might otherwise miss.
Yet, writing about race in a way that feels authentic and impactful isn’t simple. There’s a fine line between sharing challenges and appearing to seek pity.
Some students worry their narratives could be reduced to “sob stories,” but the most compelling essays, in my opinion, focus on growth, framing identity as part of a broader journey toward personal development. They acknowledge hardship but highlight the resilience it instilled, linking their identities to their ambitions, values and hopes for the future.
Personally, I chose not to center my essay on race. For me, other aspects of my experience felt more defining. Race is part of my journey, but it wasn’t the piece I wanted to foreground.
For some of my friends, however, their racial and cultural identities are inseparable from who they are, and they chose to highlight those aspects as essential parts of their stories. In an admissions process where race can’t be directly considered, incorporating these layers — subtly, intentionally and within a broader narrative — remains powerful.
The end of Affirmative Action has altered the college application process, perhaps permanently. But students are adapting, finding ways to convey who they are without reducing themselves to a single label. Though race may no longer fit in a checkbox, the experiences shaped by our identities are no less significant, no less real. Students are telling their stories, and in a sense, that’s the most powerful response to this new ruling in college admissions.
This coverage is made possible through the Ethnic Media Services / AAJC reporting project on diversity after affirmative action.
