SCOTUS: Affirmative Action

The court case Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College was just recently decided on June 29th, 2023. It was decided that race-conscious admission efforts into colleges violate the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment and therefore race cannot be a factor when deciding college admittance. For many, this cause immediate distress as the point of including one's race in the college process was to make reparations for the fact many races were not allowed equal education in the past. Similarly, affirmative action was used to ensure there would be a diverse student body on campus. Now, colleges must virtually ignore one's race when deciding to admit them to their school or not as the common application is getting rid of the race "check box" in which someone indicates their race. Although, this doesn't necessarily mean one cannot indicate their race in another section of their application. For underrepresented race classes, including Native American which I personally can now not indicate on my common application, it becomes more and more important to be able to write about one's heritage in the essay portions of one's application. In this way, one can not only make the college aware of their race but also be able to deeply describe their experience with culture and heritage in a way that may be more effective than just checking a box. With affirmative action being ruled unconstitutional, there are still many ways one can express their culture through college applications and make a college aware of ones connection to their race.