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At Boston U., 'Holistic' Admissions Venture Beyond Black and White
Struggle With Race Brings Scrutiny in U-Mich. Court Case
By Michael A. Fletcher Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, March 30, 2003; Page A06
BOSTON -- The Boston University admissions committee was set to offer a coveted slot in next fall's freshman class to an applicant from Newark, N.J., though his SAT scores were far below the school's standard and despite a few troubling syntax errors in his application. But their deliberations were stopped cold by a perplexing recommendation from the applicant's high school counselor.
"He is a star," it began. But then it described the high school senior as distant and selfish. "Some people don't like him," the recommendation continued, ". . . for good reason." "Anybody else nervous about that?" Associate Director of Admissions Daniel Warner asked, looking up at four other committee members clustered around a small conference table in his office.
Surely, everyone was. "Does anybody care that he's a black male?" offered Russell Dover, an assistant admissions director, who advocated acceptance of the applicant. The question hung over the committee, which decided to dig deeper into the teenager's application. With 29,312 applicants competing for 3,935 seats in next fall's freshman class, Boston University is typical of the small number of colleges and universities that reject more applicants than they accept. Students admitted for the 2003-2004 school year have an average SAT score of 1334, a 3.66 grade-point average and rank in the top 8 percent of their high school classes.
Many have taken an impressive array of advanced placement and honors classes in high school. Others can point to unique extracurricular pursuits, from summers at Oxford University to work on a sheep ranch in the Australian outback. But in one of the murkiest aspects of its admissions process, Boston University also admits large numbers of students, including many black and Hispanic applicants, who fall far short of those lofty standards.
It is a policy exercised and defended by most selective colleges but, at the same time, a practice most of them are reluctant to spell out. Now, in a Supreme Court case that could alter three decades of college admissions practice across the country, lawyers for the University of Michigan will be forced to defend the fairness and societal value of race-conscious admissions.
Oral arguments are scheduled for Tuesday. The high court's decision is likely to affect admissions at universities across the nation, public and private. Earlier this month, Boston University allowed The Washington Post to observe two of its admissions committees as they debated and voted on dozens of applications.
The look inside the process revealed a school struggling to admit the most academically accomplished students possible, while identifying those who have special talents or characteristics that frequently prove even more crucial to success in college and beyond: drive, perseverance, personal initiative and the ability to work with others.
At the same time, they strove to diversify the school in a variety of ways -- socioeconomically, by gender, by geography and, most controversially, by race. For the applicant from Newark, admissions officials say race was never the critical factor, even if it framed the discussion about him. It was his essay that sold the committee.
In it, he described spending many hungry nights at home while his parents scoured the streets for drugs. Once the committee heard that, the student was in. Admissions officials said the applicant's story of overcoming obstacles, coupled with his academic record, earned him a spot at the school. Being black certainly helped, they added, but a white student could well have been admitted under similar circumstances. "I want to make it clear: We do not have a point system of any kind at BU," Director of Admissions Kelly A. Walter said in a reference to the University of Michigan's undergraduate admissions system.
That system grants extra points for a wide range of factors, including underrepresented minority status. But she added: "Clearly, race is not a neutral factor in the process." School officials call their consideration of race part of a "holistic" review that seeks to determine whether applicants have made the most of the opportunities available to them as high school students and whether they will contribute to student life at the university.
Still, the harsh truth hanging over the deliberations is that for every applicant with a questionable counselor's recommendation, a transcript with no advanced placement courses and an 1150 SAT score admitted to the university, it means the rejection of another, often one with more impressive academic credentials. Usually, that applicant is white or Asian.
"The decisions we make are often not straightforward," Walter said. "Our process is not formulaic. We are looking at each and every individual student and what makes them unique and whether they can enrich our community." Most selective schools not only conduct a "whole file" review of students, but also grant admissions preferences to underrepresented racial minorities as well as to children of alumni, athletes and applicants whose families make significant financial donations.
"A holistic review is generally what you see at most private institutions," said Donald E. Heller, a researcher at Penn State University's Center for the Study of Higher Education. "In public institutions like Michigan, you generally see more formulaic approaches to admissions. The fact of the matter is, no matter how the court rules, public institutions will have no choice but to take a more holistic approach."
Even so, if the Supreme Court rules against the University of Michigan, selective schools such as Boston University could be legally barred from using race as an admissions factor, even in the largely undefined way they do now. With race-conscious affirmative action in place, black and Hispanic students account for 8.3 percent of the school's undergraduate enrollment.
If selective schools chose students based solely on grades and test scores, they would almost certainly enroll many fewer blacks and Hispanics. Among the nation's high school graduates last year, 1,400 black students and 2,436 Hispanics scored at least 1320 out of a possible 1600 on the SAT, a mark just below this year's average for students admitted to Boston University.
Nearly 65,000 whites and 16,030 Asians achieved that score or better, according to the College Board. Critics of standardized tests note there is a weak correlation between students' SAT scores and their first-year performance in college -- a link they say is even more tenuous for blacks and Hispanics. It is an argument that admissions officials bear in mind. Take, for example, the student from an elite private school in the mid-Atlantic region, the daughter of Iranian parents, an engineer and a doctor.
The committee was impressed by her ambitious high school curriculum, which included four advanced placement classes in her senior year. They also noted that she spoke Farsi and was the only female member and a co-captain of her school's "It's Academic" team. But her 3.3 grade-point average and 1190 SAT score put her, as one member said, "on the low end," particularly for a student whose parents are highly educated professionals. Sara Libby, the senior assistant admissions director who served as the student's advocate, said her essay was fine. She also made it clear that she liked the applicant's style. "She has a little spunk," she said. Still, Walter was skeptical.
"She's 150 points below where we are running as an average," she said. "Is
that a concern?" It was, but the school admitted her, convinced that she was
an overachiever. There was no debate about another applicant from the same school.
Not only did the Asian male score a 1460 on the SAT, but he also had a 3.5 grade-point
average, interned at the National Institutes of Health and formed a ska band.
"[He] sounds very strong," Walter said. The committee unanimously agreed to
admit him. Admissions officials acknowledge that their work is highly subjective
and can be inconsistent. It is also guided by few hard-and-fast rules.
They frown on students from elite schools who take few advanced placement courses. But they also admit students from schools where such courses are not offered. "If as a student they had choices, we expect them to take advantage of them," said Yasmin McGinnis, a senior assistant director of admissions. "I would never penalize a student who didn't have those choices."
Students from places that produce few applicants, such as Arizona, may get in with lesser academic credentials than one from the suburbs of New York City, which send the university hundreds of applicants. It is little wonder that officials call what they do "more art than science." Boston University does have basic admissions criteria: Applicants must complete a core high school curriculum that includes four years of English, three years of math, three years of laboratory science, three years of history and social studies and two years of foreign language.
There are no fixed entrance requirements regarding grade-point averages or standardized test scores. But about 20 percent of students are presumptively accepted if they have especially strong academic credentials, or rejected if they have particularly weak grades and test scores. The other cases are laid out before the four- and five-member admissions committees, always identified by their high schools, grades, test scores, gender and race.
A black female applicant from a private school in Washington piqued the committee's interest, despite a lackluster 2.7 grade-point average and 1140 SAT score. Committee members saw her as a leader because she founded a black cultural club and a hip-hop dance group at her school. They also decided she is "an uphill runner," because her grades have improved lately.
But her essay, describing how she met her boyfriend at a concert, struck the committee as curious. "It was all over the place," Libby said, "like a little soap opera." She was a "lifer," meaning she had attended the private school since kindergarten. Some committee members mumbled that her grades should be better. "I'll give her this," Libby said. "She has no C's; they're all C-pluses."
After a few minutes of debate, the committee sent her application to the university's College of General Studies, a highly structured two-year liberal arts program intended to shore up borderline students in their freshman and sophomore years. Another applicant from Los Angeles got a long look from the committee. Born in Ethiopia, she had grown up in a rough neighborhood, where she was robbed at gunpoint in her apartment building and witnessed a drive-by shooting.
A scholarship program allowed her to leave a poorly performing public high school to attend a highly regarded private school, where she struggled with a 2.7 grade-point average; she managed just a 900 on the SAT.
"She's been pretty much on her own," said Jennifer Simpson, an assistant admissions director who presented the girl's application. The committee discussed the girl's personal story for several minutes, but her academic record remained a stumbling block.
"I don't know that there is really much to discuss here," Simpson said finally. Reluctantly, the committee agreed, rejecting the student's application. "The worst thing we could do is take someone and set them up for failure," Deputy Admissions Director Patrick McNally said. "This is a no, a hard no."
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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