Since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in a case against Harvard and University of North Carolina, colleges have been trying to get around the rules by asking questions related to a student’s community, background, challenges, how identity has shaped their world view, and other questions that relate to personal experiences that are likely to reveal enough about a student for colleges to fold in identity to the admission equation. The Court stated that students are allowed to write about their personal experiences, including experiences related to race, discrimination, or adversity—if those experiences are presented as part of the student’s individual story.
Now, however, the Trump administration is trying to fight back against this practice. The Department of Education has warned colleges that they can’t do “indirectly” what they are prohibited from doing directly. In other words, if a school can’t ask about race outright, it also can’t design essays that all but require students to reveal it. Not surprisingly, the Trump Justice Department has echoed this view, calling certain essay themes and diversity statements potential “proxies” for race.
As a result, colleges are nervous—and for good reason. The administration has launched investigations into multiple universities, signaling that it’s willing to use federal civil-rights enforcement to crack down on anything it views as noncompliant. No admissions office wants to be the test case.
What does this mean in practice? Many colleges are quietly revising their supplemental essays. Some are removing diversity-focused prompts entirely. Others are rewording questions to emphasize intellectual curiosity, community engagement, leadership, or problem-solving—topics that don’t explicitly steer students toward identity-based narratives. This does not mean students are banned from writing about race, culture, or hardship. They can still do so, and in fact, doing so may be central to their story. What’s changing is the institutional role: colleges are trying to avoid asking questions that appear designed to elicit that information systematically.
For parents, the conclusion is this: essays still matter enormously. As I have been advising students and parents for years, college essays should demonstrate three qualities that colleges covet over all others: likability, admirability, and honesty. Authenticity matters more than ever—especially when admissions offices know their essays may be scrutinized not just by readers, but by regulators. This is an evolving situation, and parts of the administration’s approach are still being challenged in court. But for now, colleges are playing defense, and essay prompts are now on the front lines. As this war of ideology unfolds, the strongest applications are still the ones that stay grounded in the three characteristics mentioned above.
