Race-Conscious Affirmative Action: What's Next

An expected national ban on the consideration of race in college admissions will threaten the racial and ethnic diversity of students at selective colleges unless these colleges fundamentally alter their admissions practices. This report finds that selective colleges barred from considering race and ethnicity in their admissions decisions may be able to partially claw back some racial/ethnic diversity using class-conscious admissions practices, but they will be extremely unlikely to enroll student bodies that come close to mirroring the demographic diversity of the high school class. The authors examine the following six admissions models and the impact they would likely have on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic diversity if used consistently across selective colleges: (1) Academic merit, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity; (2) High school class rank, socioeconomic status, and race/ethnicity; (3) Academic merit only; (4) Academic merit and socioeconomic status; (5) High school class rank only; and (6) High school class rank and socioeconomic status. All six models assume the elimination of preferences for legacy applicants, student athletes, and other groups that receive admissions boosts for reasons unrelated to academic merit, race/ethnicity, or socioeconomic status (SES).