College Admissions: The Hard Truth

The Problem With College Admissions and How Blue Heart is Beating The Odds.

Recently, Felicity Huffman’s daughter was accepted into the prestigious Carnegie Mellon University – just over a year after her parent’s involvement in a high profile college admissions scandal. In early 2019, the government investigated actors, business tycoons, and other super wealthy parents in a college admissions investigation known internally as Operation Varsity Blues. More than 30 parents were charged with paying upwards of $25 million dollars in bribes to secure their children’s admissions into elite schools. The lawsuit exposed the long-standing advantages that wealthy applicants have and resurfaced national conversations about racial inequality in college admissions.

Millions of high school students participate in what should be a fair process of applying to college every year. In reality, millions of underserved youth have to face racial inequality in college admissions. There are barriers of entry and systemic discrimination that prevents some students from having a college application as competitive as their peers. Typically, college applications consist of an application form, a personal essay (or writing sample), the student’s academic transcript, recommendations from teachers or community members, and, most controversially, standardized test scores.

Many colleges require standardized testing, which in and of itself is discriminatory. Tests like the SAT and ACT cost from $50-$100 and are administered outside of the classroom. While some students are able to purchase the official study guides (priced anywhere from $15-$40), take prep classes and spend hundreds of dollars on retesting and expediting scores, other students don’t have the means. Some students may not have the advantage of choosing which scores to use on their college application because they can only afford to take the test once, if at all. Additionally, students with jobs after school may not have the time to dedicate to studying or extra prep classes. This can be a larger issue when schools, funded by property taxes, don’t have the same resources to help students in lower income neighborhoods prepare for these tests. Underserved youth that do have the opportunity to take the SAT or ACT are also subject to an achievement gap.

Throughout history, students with different racial or ethnic backgrounds have notable scoring gaps on large-scale standardized tests, like the SAT.

Specifically, the black-white achievement gap has persisted for almost a century. From data publicly available by the College Board, the scores of black students have consistently been clustered on the lower end, while white students have maintained a relatively normal distribution throughout the entire score range. This can be attributed to the culturally biased language and format of standardized tests. Ultimately, what is meant to assess aptitude, actually assess how quickly a student can guess what the test maker determines as the correct answer. Because standardized testing is primarily used to determine merit-based scholarships, this achievement gap has further implications on racial inequality in college admissions. If black students can’t score high enough on the SAT or ACT, they are not eligible to be considered for those opportunities.

Although some colleges have begun to remove the standardized testing requirement, there are still other monetary barriers to entry, like application fees, that exist and perpetuate racial inequality in college admissions. Each college can choose how much to charge – some colleges, especially the more elite colleges like Stanford University, charge an application fee as high as $90. At this point in the college application process, families of underserved youth may not be able to afford these application fees, which gives an unfair advantage to students of families in higher income brackets, as the 2019 college admissions scandal shows.

A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) found that students whose parents are in the top 1% are 77 times more likely to attend an elite college than students whose parents are in the bottom 20%.

That statistic alone is concerning. When comparing students from both low and high income families, the NBER report found that the students have similar earning potential, dependent on the college they attend. This proves that students from low income families aren’t misplaced in college. But, the lower rates of upward mobility, how often students from the bottom 20% are able to reach the top 20%, show that students from low income families aren’t getting the chance to access college education.

With no national measures in place to support underserved youth, there will continue to be racial inequality in college admissions. In 2018, the Trump administration withdrew Obama-era guidance that encouraged affirmative action. Previously, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education issued a joint statement urging colleges to voluntarily consider race in the interest of achieving diversity. But now, some states have even gone as far banning affirmative action. In the absence of national policy, college admissions must challenge the status quo – favoring admission for legacies and students with transcripts decorated with extra curriculars and high standardized test scores.

The growing racial inequality in college admissions is a problem given the benefits of higher education on under-served youth, especially African American boys. Higher education results in higher earning potential, more career options, and character development for young African American men. Recognizing the importance of higher education in our communities, The Blue Heart Foundation is committed to supporting our students. As a service to our boys, we collaborate with the University of California – San Diego for an intensive SAT prep program, called Students With Academic Goals (SWAG). We help make applying to college more affordable by using the Common Black App and providing access to SAT waivers, as well as CSU & UC application fee waivers.

The Blue Heart Foundation boasts a 100% college acceptance rate. Our young men have earned thousands of dollars in scholarships to universities across the country. Contact us today to learn more about how we invest in the educational development of our youth.