What the Pool of College Applicants Looked Like After Affirmative Action Ban Education Week
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The Common Application, a not-for-profit member organization that colleges and universities use to receive applications, didn’t see immediate major shifts in student-application behaviors following the June 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision striking down affirmative action.
New data analysis of 6 million U.S.-based college applicants over five years to more than 800 institutions found that overall, when it came to the 2023-24 application season ending on April 30, how applicants chose to self-identify racially/ethnically, how diverse applicant pools were, and how often students chose to apply to selective institutions remained largely on trend with past years.
“I remember being heartened that it did not seem to be that there were changes in application patterns, that underrepresented students weren’t being dissuaded from applying,” said Jenny Rickard, the CEO of Common Application.
