Why Affirmative Action is No Longer Fair

By Ella Kang

Most high school students, regardless of race or background, grind their sweat and soul, looking forward to one thing: college. Yet, prestigious colleges, where these dreamers pursue the most, require many qualifications from their applicants. These generally include high achieving grades and test results from nationwide tests such as ACT, SAT, AP, and IB tests. However, doing well on these exams are not good enough since colleges also look for elements such as an individual’s extracurricular activities and recommendation letters. Hence, for those students who are incapable of these achievements for unfortunate reasons, such as non-supportive households or backgrounds, colleges employ holistic review: an admission strategy used to appraise students in unique aspects of each student, such as distinctive experiences, growth potential, and personal attributes, besides academic metrics. However, this tends to neglect the authentic purpose by solely biasing students in a particular social class or race, excluding the rest of the students, even the ones who perform better or the same. Therefore, affirmative action poses unfair college admission for it leads to the discrimination against major groups, undermines the importance of true qualification, and further increases discrimination towards the minor group.

While affirmative action was made to protect the minority, it now creates an unfair college admission experience for the majority group, especially against Asian and White applicants. In fact, Asians, who are—in prejudice—regarded as the most dominant race in the competition of college admission, received the lowest acceptance rate of Harvard University. On the other hand, Whites received 7.5%, which is quite adjacent to the Asians’, while Hispanics and Blacks each received 22.9% and 44.5% (Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case Showed ‘Astonishing’ Racial Gaps). This trend stayed consistent with other colleges such as University of North Carolina, proving that this discrimination is impacting colleges on a nationwide scale. What is shown in these statistical values are highly ironic because while affirmative action is initiated to reduce discrimination, Asian Americans tend to encounter the lowest chances of admittance despite being placed in the same academic decile. In addition, about 17.93% of the Asian applicants were revealed to acquire lower scores for personal ratings—which depends on their personal statement essays—compared with 26.1% of White, 32.2% of Hispanic, and 39.57% of Black applicants (Supreme Court Affirmative Action Case Showed ‘Astonishing’ Racial Gaps). Personal statements were implemented in the college admission process for students to describe and portray themselves to reduce the importance of pure numbers. Therefore, they are all unique and explain hardships, relevant life stories, values, etc,. While scores on personal statements are subjective, it is not a coincidence that many colleges are ranking Asian and White students’ essays lower than other students’ essays. These examples highlight how affirmative action is posing a reverse-discrimination on Asian and White students. To a certain point, affirmative action is necessary and beneficial, however, it can’t be at the cost of other innocent students. 

Another reason why affirmative action is no longer fair is because college admissions consider race and background over true statistics. True statistics reflect each student’s overall GPA and test scores, which reveals not only his or her academic performances, but also their tenacity and responsibilities as a student. In fact, it is known that  “all colleges emphasize GPA requirements” and also evaluate the difficulty of the “curriculum, and the courses you take as indicators of your ability to be successful in college…” (College Rates and Requirements). This is the same for test scores, where standardized exam scores for SAT/ACT and AP/IB all play a role in an applicant’s chances to get into college. While college admission doesn’t always depend on GPAs and test scores, they still do heavily matter. This statement comes directly from Collegeboard, the national organization that works with nearly all colleges, and students who are attending high school and are hoping to attend college. For students to maintain a high GPA, receiving A’s is not good enough. There are levels to classes, and some classes, such as AP classes, provide higher GPA points compared to college-prep classes. Because these high-level classes require more concentration, time, commitment, etc., a high GPA is an indication of not only high intelligence but also intense work-ethics. Analogous to GPA, standardized exams are also crucial as it reflects where the student’s academic ability lies when compared to other students worldwide. Considering the challenges high-score achieving students go through, it seems unfair that their effort gets undermined due to their race. To make college admissions fair and just for everyone, it needs to focus more on the amount of effort and time each student spent preparing for higher education in college. 

Beyond the statistical identity, “extracurriculars are where you can really stand out, especially from others with similar grades. Extra academic activities show off your personal strengths and interests to admissions officers” (College Rates and Requirements). Similar to grades and test scores, extracurriculars also require a lot of time and energy. This is especially because in today’s admission process, merely doing an activity is not enough to stand out. Instead, each student needs to excel in these activities. For example, musicians should be receiving awards in music competitions, and  athletes need to perform in prestigious teams and/or win medals. These accomplishments do not come from “luck” but rather is a result of years of training. Other extracurriculars such as club leaders, research, volunteering, etc., require countless hours of work. As mentioned above, these efforts should not be undervalued against race. However, because the college admission process has been focusing excessively on acquiring racial equality, it has caused reverse inequality to all students who participate rigorously in high school. Therefore, for a true equal college admission process, it would be essential to shift the focus from race to actual student statistics.

Supporters of affirmative action argue that even though it might cause reverse discrimination, it still needs to exist because marginalized groups must be acknowledged. Primarily, affirmative action was initiated in 1961 when former president, John F. Kennedy issued Executive Order 10925, to create racial justice for employers seeking for jobs. Its main purpose was to “affirm the government's commitment to equal opportunity for all qualified persons, and to take positive action to strengthen efforts to realize true equal opportunity for all” (A Brief History of Affirmative Action). This later was adapted into the college admission processes, attempting to provide equal education opportunities for all races. Especially in the mid-1900s, when racism was a controversial topic, colleges decided to provide some advantages for the racial minority groups to create a more diverse campus. This is because historically, without affirmative action, white students were heavily preferred over colored students, taking away opportunities for better education, better jobs, and a better future. In addition, while racism in the United States has improved drastically compared to the 1960s, America still suffers from racism and its historical effects. In fact, for multiple decades, White and Asian households showed higher income rates, which was used to financially support their children, further allowing them to continue the high level of education and better quality of life. Hence, since the consequence from historical racism in the United States still exists, affirmative action should remain and provide opportunities to thor who have been historically marginalized. 

While these arguments underscore important truths about America’s history of racial inequality, they overlook the fact that affirmative action treats symptoms rather than causes. Race-conscious admissions do not directly fix the inequities within K-12 education or socioeconomic systems, but instead, they shift the consequences, often penalizing students who have worked equally hard under different circumstances. Furthermore, using race as an admission factor risks reinforcing other stereotypes because it may unintentionally imply that racial minority students need special assistance and consideration to succeed. Instead of focusing on treating the symptoms of inequality, the United States can focus on expanding financial aid, better courseworks in low-income schools, etc. These strategies will help fix academic inequality from the fundamental issues without penalizing other students. 

Therefore, affirmative action constitutes unfair college admissions, because it causes a reverse discrimination against the majority group, undermines the importance of statistics and accomplishments of students, and because it does not directly address discrimination. While it is true that the initial purpose of affirmative action had a great meaning and cause to it, now those ideas are outdated. Instead, colleges and society in general needs to focus on eliminating racism and promoting better education motivations to all students in the United States for a better and brighter future. 

By Ella Kang