"Acute Lofty Ambition Syndrome": Racialized expectations management in the college application process

• In Event: 30682 - The Landscape of Access to Educational Opportunity: Gateways and Barriers

Abstract

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that race-conscious college admissions was unconstitutional, setting off a firestorm of speculation over how admissions outcomes might change. This project shifts our focus to the other side of the admissions desk, to examine how college applicants strategize their racial and class identities in light of decades-long debates over race in admissions. One aspect of strategizing selective admissions is deciding which of the 4,000 institutions of higher education in the U.S. to expend effort applying to. These decisions are based on many factors, including location, size, academics, social fit, and, importantly, educated guesses about how likely a student is to be admitted. Drawing on 105 interviews with private admissions consultants, application advisors for nonprofit organizations, and high school seniors, I examine how beliefs about the role of race in college admissions affect how application advisors manage their clients’ expectations about their likelihood of acceptance to various schools. Consultants believed that underrepresented racial minority and low-income students were advantaged at selective schools, nudging them to set higher expectations while disregarding these students’ other accumulated disadvantages. To assuage White families’ concerns about race, consultants advised them to use early decision to boost their chances, a strategy that privileges wealthy families. Finally, consultants found managing Asian American families’ expectations to be particularly challenging, stereotyping them as obsessed with prestige and indistinguishable in their applications. Strategies for managing these expectations include encouraging them to consider schools with fewer Asian American students. Racialized sorting in admissions thus happens not only when colleges decide who to admit, but also when students decide where to apply, before applications ever reach admissions officers’ desks.

Author

• Tiffany Joyce Huang, The Ohio State University