As her daughter drafted her college essay this fall, Elsa Menendez, a mother of two from the north of Spain, advised her not to write about her trips to visit family back home.
“I am not sure if you should even be talking about diversity,” said Ms. Menendez, who had been startled by the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration and diversity initiatives.
“It was difficult to hear,” her daughter, Lola, recalled.
After the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in 2023, Chief Justice John Roberts left room for race to be considered in the writing portion of a college application, so long as it was tied to another characteristic or virtue. But conservatives and others have long argued that giving a boost to students because of their race or ethnicity is unfair and that it has magnified the role of race and racism in American life, rather than diminishing it.
Under President Trump, that view is ascendant, and he has aggressively targeted school efforts to increase diversity.
The Trump administration’s attack on higher education has included cuts to federal research funding, legal battles with the nation’s top universities and executive orders directing universities to stop supporting diversity initiatives and ordering them to provide demographic data about their students. While college applications are private, the moves have created a sense of unease and distrust among seniors.
In interviews with dozens of high school seniors applying to college this fall, many said they were worried that sharing personal information — especially about their race, gender and immigration status — could hurt them.
C. William Coakley, a college access coach from Las Vegas, told his students that “D.E.I., in this decade, is an I.E.D.,” referring to improvised explosive devices.
Mr. Coakley, who has more than two decades of college prep experience, said that college essays have long been influenced by the political winds of the nation. The latest changes in approach, he observed, are just part of a cyclical pattern. “Every generation has had to deal with this in some manner,” he said.
During the Obama administration, when there a focus on racial injustice, Mr. Coakley noticed that his wealthy white students were “very much on edge about saying the wrong thing.”
While some institutions continue to explicitly ask about diversity in applications, College Transitions, an admissions consulting firm, has found more than a dozen colleges and universities that have made changes to essay prompts.
For example, Colorado College previously asked students to write either about antiracism, sustainability or wellness. This year, the school invites students to describe how they would take advantage of an independent study program.
Harvard University amended a prompt that said the school recognizes the “importance of enrolling a diverse student body,” saying instead this year that it recognizes the “importance of enrolling a student body with a diversity of perspectives and experiences.”
Not all colleges have followed this trend. In an interview, Yvonne Romero, the vice president of enrollment at Rice University, said the school continues to welcome essay responses about diversity.
“We allow them to select amongst the multiple identities they carry that they want to share,” she said.
Still, many students are seeking to avoid subjects that have come under scrutiny of the Trump administration.
When drafting his college essay this fall, Eduardo Casillas, a high school senior from Las Vegas, wondered if he should identify his parents as immigrants. Some days after school, Eduardo, a U.S. citizen, delivers groceries to his relatives, who are afraid to leave their home because of the immigration crackdown.
At his own home, his mother reminds him that he looks Mexican and shouldn’t go out. “You’ll be safe here,” he said she tells him.
In his essay, Eduardo explored his struggles with Tourette’s syndrome and how his family, even after he saw three doctors who came to the same diagnosis, couldn’t accept it. He wanted to explain how he believed their reaction reflected their immigrant experience. But while writing, he paused and wondered, “is that really something in my best interest or theirs to include?”
In a later draft, Eduardo chose to elide his parents’ migrant background. “I just felt like it couldn’t be said,” he said.
Ashley, a 17-year-old from New York City, also chose to skip including sensitive information, completely rewriting her personal statement. Her first draft focused on her social transition from male to female. But she was told by her college counselor that this approach was risky because of the hostility the administration has shown toward transgender people. So she pivoted to a story about her interpersonal skills.
Ashley asked only to use her first name because she worried about reprisals related to her gender identity.
“Students are operating under more constraints, and they feel narrowed in the ways that they can express who they are in these essays,” said Aya M. Waller-Bey, a researcher at Brown University who wrote her dissertation on the role of race and trauma in admissions essays.
Mr. Coakley, who works with a diverse mix of young people in Las Vegas as the head of Academic Coaching Services, noted students this year are deciding to avoid politics. They want to stay neutral, he said.
But some applicants are still focusing on race.
Zhi McMillan, a senior from Virginia, highlighted in his essay an experience at a historical burial ground for African Americans and how the derelict conditions inspired him to use technology to preserve the cemetery’s history. Zhi said he mentioned his experience as a Black man because he wants to attend a university that sees the value of diversity.
Laisha, a student from Nevada, wrote her essay about her family’s migrant experience. Laisha, who asked to be identified by her first name to protect information about her parents’ immigration status, framed the story around a phrase her parents repeated throughout her life: “Someday I won’t be here.”
Her essay alludes to her father’s detainment by immigration agents at the beginning of the school year.
But data suggests that more students are nervous about disclosing information about their identity. Students can still check a box reporting their race on college applications, information that is hidden from admissions officers but ultimately collected by schools and shared with the federal government.
An increasing number of students are not checking the box.
Lily, who is half Taiwanese, worried her Asian American identity would put her at a disadvantage, she said. She did not report her race nor did she include her Taiwanese middle name in her application.
Lily, who asked to use her first name only because she worried about jeopardizing her college chances, also chose to write about her experience working at a job center for disabled people, instead of a story about her Taiwanese grandparents.
“I’m not totally against affirmative action, obviously, but it being gone is sort of helpful for me,” said Lily, a 18-year-old from Portland, Ore. But when she sought advice from her mother, she was told to play it safe.
“Oh, don’t put it,” she calls her mother saying.
Dr. Waller-Bey, the researcher at Brown, has argued the admissions process has incentivized students — particularly students of color from low-income backgrounds — to write about themselves as victims of discrimination or to focus on traumatic experiences, rather than on their achievements.
This weighed on Maritza Perez, a senior from Northern California, as she considered ideas for her essay. Ultimately, she was drawn to writing about her father’s suicide because it is the reason she wants to pursue a career in public health and social sciences.
“I learned to use my story as a tool to empower me and help lead me forward instead of holding me back,” she said.
Bernard Mokam covers breaking news.
The post What Seniors Are Writing About in Their College Admissions Essays appeared first on New York Times.
