In the weeks since the U.S. Supreme Court upended the landscape of higher education with its rejection of race-conscious college admissions, students seeking to get into prestigious universities are struggling to understand the ramifications of the ruling, according to consultants who help advise high schoolers on the application process.
“Right after the ruling came out, all of our students said, ‘What does this mean? And how does this affect me?’” said Caroline Koppelman, a college admissions consultant who runs the Koppelman Group.
In the days following the Supreme Court’s June 29 ruling, many colleges said they’re still figuring out the implications for themselves. And experts whose primary task is preparing high school students for the next phase also say the future remains uncertain.
The ruling brought an end to decades of race-conscious admissions practices, but the experts said it’s still not clear how selective colleges and universities will adapt, or the extent to which they’ll embrace “workarounds” that allow students’ racial backgrounds to remain in the admissions mix.
Regardless, many experts predicted that students from underrepresented groups would come to see acceptance to prestigious institutions as increasingly unobtainable.
“Feeling like they ‘belong’ on these predominantly white and upper-class campuses is already a challenge, and the decision is likely to make them feel — rightly or wrongly — even less like they can be at home at these schools,” said Janice Bloom, who co-founded College Access: Research and Action.
Bloom said students and high schools are currently in a waiting period, as colleges and universities determine their next moves in response to the ruling.
“My guess is that colleges are also in the early days of sorting through what they will do differently,” she said.
But answers could begin to emerge in the next few weeks, when colleges release the “supplemental questions” they use to go beyond the
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