Is It “Okay” to Talk About Race in Your College Application and Essays—And If So, How Should You Do It?
A Guide for Students of Color (and Their Counselors)
Heads up for counselors: For a shorter, PDF version of this post that you can share with students, click here.
In late June, the Supreme Court banned affirmative action as it relates to college admission (also known as race-conscious admission policies), leaving many students wondering…
“Can I talk about race in my personal statement and college application?”
In short: Yes, you definitely can (see rest of blog for more).
“Should I?”
That’s a more complex question, but the rest of this guide will walk through some things to think through so you can decide for yourself.
TABLE OF CONTENTSDon’t have time to read 237 pages right now?
Here’s the TL;DR version:
Colleges can’t consider race as a standalone factor in admission. In other words, you can’t get into college—or be favored—simply based on your race. (This means that, even though the Common App will have a checkbox asking you for your race, colleges will suppress that information—so even if you check the box for your race, they won’t see it.)
But the syllabus to the decision also notes:
“. At the same time, nothing prohibits universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected the applicant’s life, so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability that the particular applicant can contribute to the university.”
Those bolded parts are potentially really important, especially for students of color.
Why is that last part so important?
Because, according to these sentences, colleges can consider discussions of how race has impacted your life. So, if you want colleges to take this into consideration, it’s important that the mention of race connect specifically to either a “quality of character” or a “unique ability.”
So… can you mention race in your essay and application?
Again, yes, you can.
It’s not illegal?
No, it’s not illegal. In fact, free speech laws (and your First Amendment rights) mean you can say basically whatever you want in your application. The burden is actually on the colleges—not you—to decide what to do with the information you provide. (For more on this, check out this podcast episode with legal expert Jay Rosner.)
But should you?
That’s a pretty complex issue.
And to be blunt, I feel pretty wary, as a white dude, of telling you whether or not to write about your race in your college essay.
But I do want to help you think through it, since I have spent the better part of the past 20 years advising students on their college applications. So here are some things to consider.
I reached out to several college admission officers to get their take, and here’s what they shared with me:
“As you put your best foot forward in your college admissions essays, please do not hesitate to share any experiences about your life that help to capture who you are as an individual. This includes experiences about how your race/ethnic background affected your life, overcoming adversity, and your personal passions, motivations, and interests! You are an individual with so much depth and vibrancy, and colleges want to know more about who you are and who you will become.”
- Ashley Pallie, Executive Director of Undergraduate Admissions & Chief Admissions Officer, Caltech
“Feel empowered to write an essay that is an authentic representation of yourself. You can tell your story better than anyone else in the world, so embrace this opportunity to reflect on your experiences and your identity. Determine what is essential for you to include in your application. Brainstorm, draft, and edit—don't forget to check for typos!”
- Lina Goggins-Rendón, Assistant Director of Admission & Advising at USC Gould School of Law
“Please do not be intimidated by this ruling… put down anything that you wish to discuss in your application.”
College admissions and legal expert Jay Rosner notes that students of color should consider mentioning race, and may be making a mistake if they don’t. Jay’s reasoning goes something like this: historically, our society has disadvantaged students of color, for example by funding school systems through things like property taxes, which, overall, leads to cyclically poorer funding for students of color. As such, those students should take advantage of a bump that possibly adjusts for some small part of those historical disadvantages.
College admissions and standardized testing expert Akil Bello points out, on the other hand, that race has never been the determining factor in admission and so families and students should basically just do what they would have done before the decision anyway.
Ask yourself: Do you feel like your race or cultural background have influenced who you are today?
And they don’t just care a little bit—they care a lot. How do I know?
First, a number of admission officers I know personally have directly told me, “We care about diversity.” But don’t just take my word for it.
Colleges care about diversity so much that it’s actually written into the mission statement of many, many colleges and universities and, after the SCOTUS decision was released, many made statements reaffirming their commitment to diversity. (Don’t believe me? Check out this Google Drive folder.)
Remember, colleges won’t see the checkbox for race on your application, which means admission officers won’t know your race unless you tell them.
Important Note
I’m not saying in this guide that you must write about race in your application, or even that you necessarily should.
Ultimately it’s your choice.
But if you do decide to discuss race in your application, it may be useful to see how another student did it.
What follows in this guide are examples from one student who did—and how she connected race to her character and unique qualities—so you can decide for yourself.
How do I figure out which parts of my self I want to share with colleges? Check out the If You Really, Really Knew Me Exercise. In about 20 minutes you'll have a list of identities, skills, qualities, and skills you. can share with colleges.
“Do I have to talk about race in terms of the challenges I’ve faced?” You don’t—and depending on your answers above, that may come as a relief, since plenty of students feel like that can make them feel boxed in with their writing. Know that there are many ways to talk about your identity, and I share some options and example essays in this separate guide.
Remember: If you want to discuss your race, and if you want to do so in a way that colleges can consider, you can’t just say “I’m Mexican” or “I’m Black” and expect that to make a difference in your college application.
Why? Because—and I’m referencing the Supreme Court decision here—if you don’t give concrete evidence of how your race has shaped your character or helped you develop unique qualities that help you contribute to the college… then college admission officers aren’t allowed to consider that as part of your application.
Where might students discuss race in their college application? There are actually a few different places you can, should you choose to do so.
They include these five sections:
To illustrate options for how you can approach this, I want to introduce you to a student who connected her race and cultural background to character and unique qualities—in each of these sections of her application. Let’s take a look at each section at a time, starting with her personal statement.
Two years ago, I worked with a high-achieving student named Joselina. She was a first generation student from Phoenix with her heart set on attending Yale.
Below I’ll mark in bold below the places where I believe Joselina is discussing race in a way that illuminates character or unique qualities. By the way, she didn’t bold these in her submitted application, and you don’t need to in yours (although you might do this while you’re writing just so you can make sure you’re providing your application reader with information that they can actually use, then unbold everything before you submit).
Let’s take a look at her application, with my analysis included in the boxes between paragraphs.
Note that some of the specific identifying details have been edited by request of the author.
When I was nine, I heard a knock that would change my life forever.
We answered the door and found officials from the immigration office standing there, their demeanor routine, having performed this task countless times before. My parents were to be deported, leaving my siblings and me in a whirlwind of uncertainty. It felt as if the foundation of my existence had been uprooted.
Analysis: In the opening, and in the paragraph below, the author shares information that wouldn't be obvious from anywhere else in her application, which helps the reader to understand specifically how and why she took the actions she took that led to her developing the qualities of character and unique ability that I'll name in the comments below.
With our parents gone, my siblings and I found refuge with our tia and tio, after the court deemed it unsafe for us to return to our birth country due to escalating political unrest. Throughout my childhood, my undocumented parents had shied away from introducing us to our Mexican heritage so our family could better assimilate into American society. I fell in love with the vibrant colors of folklorico dresses and the melodious tones of Spanish coming from family members and 105.3, our favorite Mexican radio station. I was in complete awe of my roots.
Character and unique qualities this demonstrates: appreciation of beauty, love, wonder, perspective
With our parents away, I felt a moral responsibility to become a leader and parental figure to my younger siblings.
I started by attending parent teacher conferences, “Parent Cafecitos” and becoming a mini-mom to my siblings. I began to integrate into my community to a greater extent, which brought to light problems my own people faced on a daily basis: menstrual poverty, gun violence, and the crisis along the Mexican-American border. Many community members face injustices, financial crises and discrimination based on their immigration status from Mexico and their socioeconomic standing.
Character and unique qualities this demonstrates: increased awareness, courage, leadership, commitment to helping others
With this knowledge, I became fascinated with questions that pertained to my own community. How is our capitalist state impacting the lives of the underprivileged? How can we reconstruct our legal frameworks to better reflect the humanity and rights of asylum seekers?
Contributing to my community led me to fall in love with the concept of reforming the world for the better. Empowered Latinxs such as Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Mayor [redacted] inspired me to strive towards success; not individual success, but the flourishing of our whole society. I began working alongside my community to organize Climate Strikes, Menstrual Rallies, and events that promote awareness of gun violence.
Character and unique qualities this demonstrates: curiosity, critical thinking, commitment to fairness, social justice, more evidence of leadership
My megaphone became my best friend, sending my thoughts into the ears of my community. This ignited a desire within me to become the very change I want to see in the world. I plan to become a catalyst for grand modifications to policy and positively transform the relationship between legislation and societal implications that directly affect my community.
I intend to make this change through the fields of political science and sociology with a concentration in public policy. I want to create legislation relating to humanitarian causes such as immigration reform and the slaughter of our society through the ease of gun attainment.
Who knows? Perhaps one day, I'll be the one knocking on doors, bringing hope instead of heartbreak.
Character and unique qualities this demonstrates: more courage, deeper commitment (in the future) to social justice, leadership, a sense of purpose, and hope
It’s tricky to define character precisely, and each college might have its own ideas or specific qualities they’re looking for, but generally we’re talking about qualities that would contribute positively to a university community—and the world.
This isn’t an exhaustive list, of course, and you can find more examples of character from VIA, the Institute on Character).
In terms of character strengths and unique qualities, our favorite list at CEG can be found in this Values Exercise, which we recommend for almost any student starting the application process.
In the analysis linked here, I show how Joselina concretely (a.k.a. specifically) demonstrates her character and a range of unique abilities.
Joselina used a simple three-part structure (one we refer to as Narrative structure) to show how her experiences shaped her:
Part 1: Challenges + Effects
In the first ⅓ of the essay (235 words—so not precisely ⅓, which is fine), she shows the challenges she faced and the effects those challenges had on her. Then she transitions: “With our parents away, I felt a moral responsibility to become a leader and parental figure to my younger siblings.”
Part 2: What she did
In the next ⅓ of the essay (222 words—again, not precisely ⅓) she describes specific actions she took to overcome her challenges.
Part 3: What she learned
In her final three paragraphs (107 words), Joselina demonstrates additional specific character qualities and unique abilities she developed.
If you elect to write about challenges you’ve faced, you can use this structure to write your personal statement. To do that, start by completing the Feelings and Needs exercise to find out if your experiences might make for an interesting personal statement topic.
FAQ 1: Do I have to talk about challenges in order for it to be a “good” essay?
You don’t. Check out our blog on Why You Don’t Have to Write about Trauma in Your College Essay to Stand Out or this podcast episode with Tina Yong (coming soon) to learn what you can do instead.
Also, the “mariachi” essay analyzed below is an example of a great essay that shows cultural influences and experiences but doesn’t focus on challenges.
FAQ 2: What are some other examples of ways that students can talk about race in their college applications?
In a resource released jointly by the U.S. Dept of Education’s (ED) Office for Civil Rights and the U.S. Dept. of Justice’s Civil Rights Division jointly to help colleges and universities understand the Supreme Court’s decision, they shared the following guidance (see p.2):
“Q2: In what ways can institutions of higher education consider an individual student’s race in admissions? The Court in SFFA limited the ability of institutions of higher education to consider an applicant’s race in and of itself as a factor in deciding whether to admit the applicant. The Court made clear that “nothing in [its] opinion should be construed as prohibiting universities from considering an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.” Id. at 39. This means that universities may continue to embrace appropriate considerations through holistic application-review processes and (for example) provide opportunities to assess how applicants’ individual backgrounds and attributes—including those related to their race, experiences of racial discrimination, or the racial composition of their neighborhoods and schools—position them to contribute to campus in unique ways. For example, a university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra or an applicant’s account of overcoming prejudice when she transferred to a rural high school where she was the only student of South Asian descent. An institution could likewise consider a guidance counselor or other recommender’s description of how an applicant conquered her feelings of isolation as a Latina student at an overwhelmingly white high school to join the debate team. Similarly, an institution could consider an applicant’s discussion of how learning to cook traditional Hmong dishes from her grandmother sparked her passion for food and nurtured her sense of self by connecting her to past generations of her family.
In short, institutions of higher education remain free to consider any quality or characteristic of a student that bears on the institution’s admission decision, such as courage, motivation, or determination, even if the student’s application ties that characteristic to their lived experience with race—provided that any benefit is tied to “that student’s” characteristics, and that the student is “treated based on his or her experiences as an individual[,]” and “not on the basis of race.” Id. at 40.
Those institutions of higher education that do not consider the race of individual applicants when making offers of admission might not need to make any changes to their current admissions practices in light of the Court’s decision. But institutions that do consider race in the manner that the Court addressed will need to re-evaluate their current practices to ensure compliance with the law as articulated in the SFFA decision.”
But that’s not the only place where Joselina demonstrated how her race and culture helped shape her character and develop unique abilities.
