As an admissions officer at a prestigious private university, I quickly became aware of the constraints of my job. My colleagues and I were tasked with creating a diverse and competitive student body, but that often meant relying on trauma narratives from historically marginalized students to showcase their resilience and adversity. This practice is not only unfair but also common across many selective colleges and universities.
In my research on the admissions process, I discovered that students from lower-income backgrounds, particularly those from underrepresented communities, often feel compelled to write about their trauma to increase their chances of acceptance. Meanwhile, wealthier and white students tend to focus on more lighthearted topics, such as sports injuries and mission trips.
My interviews with admissions officers at competitive private universities revealed their ambivalence towards trauma-focused essays. While they do not encourage such narratives, they acknowledge that they provide helpful context when evaluating thousands of applications with few opportunities for students to distinguish themselves.
However, such expectations for marginalized students to share their struggles can be emotionally taxing and ultimately unfair. Admissions officers acknowledge the pervasiveness of these issues, with some revealing how distressing it can be to read such essays.
As the Supreme Court considers the SFFA cases, the importance of college essays in showcasing diverse backgrounds could increase significantly, with the potential to put an even greater burden on students to share their trauma. While colleges and universities may not explicitly ask for racial information, the reliance on college essays to showcase diversity means that they may inadvertently play a larger role in determining acceptance criteria.
Ultimately, this creates a perverse system where students feel they must divulge personal and often painful experiences to gain acceptance to higher education institutions. As we consider the future of admissions policies, it’s important to remember the ethical implications of relying on trauma narratives and the importance of creating a fair and just system that values diversity without relying on traumatic experiences to make up the difference.
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