found that 261 colleges and universities in the nation with more than 1,000 full-time students reported at least 50% of its undergraduate students were nonwhite in fiscal 2021. That’s 45% more schools than a decade ago, according to the data.
Contributing to the heated discourse is the fact that college rejections are often the first time that many high-performing students hear “no,” said Hall, who previously worked in admissions at the University of Southern California for 13 years. Hall said that during his tenure at USC, the competitive university would frequently receive 90,000 applications for 2,700 spots, which meant tens of thousands of students were left disappointed.
“These young people were incredibly successful their entire lives and they come from backgrounds with high-energy parents,” Hall said. “These parents have positioned them to private schools or high-end public schools and speech, debate, music, theater, and they get to this crux around 17 or 18 for the first time in their lives, they hear 'no' and it jars them. Their immediate quip is, ‘Well what did I do wrong?’ And you have to talk them down a bit and explain, ‘You did nothing wrong.
Opponents of affirmative action, on the other hand, say that it is unfair for race and ethnicity to be considered when applying to college. Students for Fair Admissions Inc., the nonprofit group founded by conservative activist, asked the Supreme Court to overrule its 2003 decision, Grutter v. Bollinger, which determined the University of Michigan's Law School could use a more nuanced approach to using race as a factor in admissions.