NACAC Files Amicus Brief in Harvard, UNC U.S. Supreme Court Cases

As the leading voice in the college admission counseling profession, NACAC joined with other organizations to inform the U.S. Supreme Court arguments in two cases it will hear on race-conscious admission practices: SFFA v. Harvard and SFFA v. University of North Carolina.

In filing an amicus brief alongside the College Board, ACT, and the American Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO), this group provides a powerful message of unified concern for the future of holistic admission practices. This also aligns with NACAC’s transformed approach to advocacy – one that shifts resources toward influencing high-impact policies.

The brief, filed Aug. 1, 2022, can be reviewed online.

Highlights from the brief:

• NACAC’s filing with the court stresses the importance of continuing to allow admission professionals to fully consider all factors regarding applicants’ accomplishments, aspirations, and promise – including when race has affected their self-identity and experience.
• America’s higher education institutions have long recognized and cultivated the educational benefits of diversity, and the court’s decision to hear these cases threatens to impede admission officers from doing everything they can to admit diverse classes of students.
• The brief emphasizes how a holistic review of student applications is best done with all relevant factors considered in combination. Test scores and grades, alone or together, do not represent the full measure of merit in holistic admission.

Additional resources:

• A recording of NACAC’s webinar on the Supreme Court cases is available for free to NACAC members.
• NACAC’s Toward A More Equitable Future in College Admission report shows America’s higher education institutions are nowhere near a time when a student’s race can be excluded in making admission decisions.
• As NACAC CEO Angel B. Pérez wrote in a Forbes column, undoing the ability of admission officers to consider race as a factor assumes we have reached a post-racial society where race no longer has a limiting impact on opportunity.