‘One Factor Among Many’

On Oct. 31, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in cases challenging the long-standing use of race as “one factor among many" in the undergraduate admissions processes of Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. While the Justices’ eventual decision is not expected to affect the selection of the Class of 2027, it could have a seismic effect on the processes that admissions offices will use to choose future classes. In this special episode of Admissions Beat, host Lee Coffin, the dean of admissions at Dartmouth College, is joined by James Washington Jr., Dartmouth’s director of admissions for strategic initiatives and the former director of admissions at the University of New Hampshire. Together, they explain how, for a half-century, admissions offices have been legally permitted to consider an applicant’s race and ethnicity as one component in an application — along with grades, teacher recommendations, essays, academic interests, and activities, among other elements — as well as the many reasons why. The two veteran admissions officers also take a few moments to gaze into the future, especially if, as is widely expected, the Court rules that the use of race as one factor among many is unconstitutional.