For decades, the struggle of minority inclusion in schools has been a hot topic of conversation. There has been a huge back-and-forth between the question of selecting candidates based on race, raising minority percentages in schools, preparing students to work in a more diverse setting and teaching them what the term equity really means to them. In January 2022, the supreme court halted the use of the Affirmative Action bill, which enables schools to consider race in the decision making process for applicants.  Now, race must be part of their individual narrative in order to be considered. If a student has overcome discriminative obstacles, that student can be considered in a different way; there cannot be a diversity balance otherwise. 

Unless a minority student provides ample evidence in their personal application of overcoming a struggle related to race, that alone will have no impact on the admission process. Many opportunities today may be predetermined by your race and economic status. When we consider the potential of minority families already at a disadvantage, relating work available based on prior education, income and area of residence, it seems silly to disregard those details when considering applicants. A student is able to work their way up the ladder to become successful and is even able to apply to these schools, but can not explain how they made it there? Many minority students are born into the struggle; their whole life is the story. Even with no outstanding moment of weakness to overcome, we are just going to disregard socioeconomic roots to fit some ratio? Being a minority student today will always be a challenge.

However, the other side of the coin could seem beneficial to some. With the concept of non-curated admission decisions, this opens up a window for students to be seen not by race, but to be noticed for personal achievements, fabulous test scores and flourishing extracurriculars. This allows students who are at a high level of trackable achievements to feel equally as seen and heard as anyone else who applies. This could be more beneficial to students in this realm, but it is also important to note that this is not the case for every student, or even most students. 

This choice is still in its early years, so we have yet to see the potential repercussions of this alteration. When it comes to education, there should be one goal for educators and the system: it needs to ensure that every student who is applying to their school has the necessary tools and support so that they can be successful.

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