Woke College Admission Policies Unpopular with American Voters

Debates over college admissions have grown increasingly contentious in recent years.

During the pandemic, hundreds of colleges made the SAT and ACT optional, and campus wokesters are hoping to preserve that change as part of their larger assault on the merit-based pillars of the education system. Left-wing academics have demanded an end to “racist tests like the SAT and ACT” as part of “dismantling white supremacy.” The Common App, used by more than 1 million students to apply to over 900 colleges each year, was revamped in 2021 to promote an “anti-racist college admissions process.” The 25,000-member National Association for College Admission Counseling has urged public universities to ditch testing requirements in favor of “new, more equitable metrics” and launched an Antiracist Education Institute to address “pervasive systemic racism at the individual level in all corners of society, including the college admission counseling professionals.”

About the Author

Frederick M. Hess

Frederick M. Hess is the director of education-policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

HS

About the Author

Hayley Sanon

Hayley Sanon is the program manager of the American Enterprise Institute’s Conservative Education Reform Network.

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Debates over college admissions have grown increasingly contentious in recent years.

During the pandemic, hundreds of colleges made the SAT and ACT optional, and campus wokesters are hoping to preserve that change as part of their larger assault on the merit-based pillars of the education system. Left-wing academics have demanded an end to “racist tests like the SAT and ACT” as part of “dismantling white supremacy.” The Common App, used by more than 1 million students to apply to over 900 colleges each year, was revamped in 2021 to promote an “anti-racist college admissions process.” The 25,000-member National Association for College Admission Counseling has urged public universities to ditch testing requirements in favor of “new, more equitable metrics” and launched an Antiracist Education Institute to address “pervasive systemic racism at the individual level in all corners of society, including the college admission counseling professionals.”