19. Adopt holistic review practices in the admissions process.

Admissions 09.16.24

Here’s what the federal government can do:

  • The U.S. Department of Education should ensure that higher education institutions have access to and an understanding of best practices on holistic review practices.
  • The U.S. Department of Education should collect, conduct, and disseminate research about best practices in admissions that promote campus diversity and racial equity.
  • The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights should publish guidance and provide technical assistance to support the use of holistic admissions processes that are free from bias and discrimination.

Here’s what state government can do:

  • Higher education coordinating agencies should share best practices for higher education institutions to incorporate holistic reviews in their admissions practices.
  • State legislatures should require higher education institutions to provide annual training on holistic review to admissions faculty and staff. State legislatures should provide funding for this purpose.

Here’s what institutional leaders can do:

  • Higher education institutions should adopt holistic reviews in their admissions practices, frequently reviewing criteria to eliminate bias and discrimination.
  • Higher education institutions should be transparent about their admissions criteria, explaining to prospective students what criteria are considered and in what ways.
  • Higher education institutions should ensure that information about their holistic review process is shared in recruitment materials, catalogs, student handbooks, and on publicly available websites.
  • Higher education institutions should provide training on holistic reviews on a consistent and annual basis to admissions faculty, staff, and all application reviewers.

Holistic admissions practices are those where multiple sources of evidence of a student’s talent, skills, experience, and likelihood of success are taken into account in the admissions process. All students can benefit from holistic admissions reviews through consideration of their background, including their responsibilities, their experiences, their interests, contributions to their communities, and how these factors collectively can enrich the campus community. The U.S. Supreme Court was clear that adopting holistic admissions practices is consistent with the Students for Fair Admissions (SFFA) v. University of North Carolina (UNC)/Harvard College decision — so long as the benefit is given on the basis of “experience as an individual.”

Public and private institutions that adopt holistic review practices can consider applicants more thoughtfully than higher education institutions that are reliant on narrow and flawed metrics, such as access to extracurriculars, personalized letters of recommendation, and SAT and ACT scores. For children from the bottom 20 percent of the income distribution, only about a quarter will take the SAT or ACT, and only about 2.5 percent will score 1300 or higher on the SAT.[i] Research suggests that evaluating a student’s application within the context of the opportunities available where they learn and live may offer colleges and universities a chance to review applications more equitably.[ii] By following holistic review approaches, admissions officers can build more diverse campuses and reap the benefits of a student body with a range of previous experiences, rather than making decisions based on narrow and flawed data that are well-documented to benefit applicants who have had more access to financial, social, and cultural capital.[iii]

Holistic reviews in admissions are mission-driven, and the process reflects integrity and fairness. Holistic reviews include three characteristics:

  • Mission alignment to advance institutional goals through the admissions process.
  • Students’ ability to enhance their campus community and the educational experiences of their peers.
  • Consideration of academic, nonacademic, and contextual factors that highlight the accomplishments and potential contributions of each applicant through consideration of their background and circumstances.

In such a process, student applications should be considered through an equitable lens on persistence, talent, and ingenuity reflected through leadership in the opportunities available where students’ live and learn.

Higher education institutions should also provide training to admissions faculty and staff to ensure their review practices are aligned with the institution’s mission of increasing racial equity and diversity. Research suggests that when admissions staff use holistic review practices and are informed with greater background information on applicants, they are more likely to admit students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds.[iv] Learning opportunities for staff could include information about: holistic review practices, inequities reflected through standardized test scores, methods to mitigate implicit bias that may influence decision-making, the importance of diversity in higher education, the requirements of civil rights laws, and cultural competence to better serve the expansion of their campus community.

[i]Wright, Marisa. “A Shared Struggle for Equality: Disability Rights and Racial Justice,” Legal Defense Fund. https://www.naacpldf.org/disability-rights-and-racial-justice/#:~:text=They%20encounter%20significant%20barriers%20in,risk%20of%20violence%20and%20abuse.

[ii] Morgan, Hani. “Misunderstood and Mistreated: Students of Color in Special Education,” Stetson University. Voices of Reform: Educational Research to Inform and Reform, December 2020. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED610548.pdf.

[iii]Buckles, Megan.“10 Policies to Improve Economic Security for Black Women With Disabilities,” The Center for American Progress. February 15, 2022. https://www.americanprogress.org/article/10-policies-to-improve-economic-security-for-black-women-with-disabilities/#:~:text=These%20disparities%20are%20greater%20among,employment%20rate%20at%2025%20percent.

[iv]Magaña, Sandra; Parish, Susan; Morales, Miguel; Li, Henan; Fujiura, Glenn. “Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities Among People With Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities,” Intellect Dev Disabil. June 2016. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27268472/.

[i]Mineo, Liz. “New Study Finds Wide Gap in SAT/ACT Test Scores between Wealthy, Lower-Income Kids,” The Harvard Gazette, November 22, 2023. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/11/new-study-finds-wide-gap-in-sat-act-test-scores-between-wealthy-lower-income-kids/.

[ii]“Questions and Answers Regarding the Supreme Court’s Decision in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College and University of North Carolina,” U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights and U.S. Department of Justice, August 14, 2023. https://www.justice.gov/d9/2023-08/post-sffa_resource_faq_final_508.pdf.

[iii]See, for example: “Strategies for Increasing Diversity and Opportunity in Higher Education,” U.S. Department of Education Office of the Under Secretary. September 2023. https://sites.ed.gov/ous/files/2023/09/Diversity-and-Opportunity-in-Higher-Education.pdf.

[iv]Bastedo, Michael, “Admitting Students in Context: Field Experiments on Information Dashboards in College Admissions,” 2022. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00221546.2021.1971488