What Post Affirmative Action Admissions Means for International Applicants
By Muntasir Minhaz • Published Aug 19, 2026
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court banned colleges from using race as a factor in admissions decisions. The ruling targets race, not nationality, so it does not directly restrict how a college weighs your country as an international applicant.
🎓 Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard (June 29, 2023) ended the use of race as an admissions factor at public and private colleges
Colleges still pursue geographic and socioeconomic diversity, including a mix of countries, as a race-neutral strategy
Write about your ethnicity or culture in your essay as part of your individual story, it is no longer scored as a checkbox
A February 2025 federal letter tried to extend the ruling toward scholarships and campus programs. A federal court struck it down, and the Department of Education dropped its appeal in January 2026 after the letter was permanently invalidated in February 2026
Harvard's Black enrollment fell from 18% in 2023 to 11.5% in the Class of 2029, while Asian American enrollment rose to 41%
What the Supreme Court ruled in June 2023
On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard and a companion case against the University of North Carolina that using race as a factor in admissions violates the Equal Protection Clause for public universities and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act for private ones that receive federal funding. The ruling ended a practice in place since the 1970s, where colleges weighed an applicant's race as one factor in holistic review (Supreme Court opinion ).
Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that colleges still weigh how race has shaped an individual applicant's life, character, or achievements, as long as it comes through the applicant's own writing rather than as a checked box that earns a fixed advantage.
What colleges still do to build a diverse class
In August 2023, the Departments of Education and Justice published joint guidance describing race-neutral ways colleges pursue diversity: targeted recruitment and outreach, pathway and pipeline programs, socioeconomic and geographic diversity, and admissions criteria reviewed for their effect on different groups (Department of Education and Department of Justice, August 2023 ). Geographic diversity, including the mix of countries and regions represented in an entering class, remained a listed, permitted consideration in that guidance.
This is the section international applicants should read closely. A college's interest in enrolling students from many countries is a nationality and geography-based goal, not a race-based one, and the ruling does not touch it directly.
A newer, contested layer: the February 2025 guidance letter
In February 2025, the Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights issued a Dear Colleague Letter interpreting the SFFA ruling more broadly, arguing that Title VI bars race-conscious practice not just in admissions but in financial aid, hiring, training, and other campus programs (US Department of Education, February 2025 ). Higher education groups and several states challenged this interpretation in court. A federal judge ruled the letter unlawful in August 2025, the Department of Education dropped its appeal in January 2026, and the court permanently vacated the letter in February 2026, so it no longer carries legal force. If you plan to apply for a scholarship that used to target a specific racial or ethnic group, check that scholarship's current eligibility rules directly with the funder rather than assume last year's terms still apply.
What has actually happened to enrolled classes since the ruling
At Harvard, Black students made up 18 percent of the incoming class in 2023, before the ruling took effect, dropping to 14 percent for the Class of 2028 and 11.5 percent for the Class of 2029. Hispanic enrollment fell from 16 percent to 11 percent over that same one-year period, while Asian American enrollment rose to 41 percent, up from 37 percent (The Harvard Crimson ).
International enrollment at Harvard also dropped, to 15 percent of the Class of 2029, but the university and reporters tied that mostly to a separate 2025 dispute over Harvard's certification to host international students and to tighter visa vetting, not to the SFFA ruling. Do not read every enrollment change at a selective college in 2025 or 2026 as a direct effect of the affirmative action ruling. Visa policy, certification disputes, and application volume are moving at the same time and often explain more of the change than the ruling does.
What did not change
The ruling addresses race specifically. It does not restrict colleges from considering socioeconomic background, first-generation status, geographic origin, legacy status, athletic recruiting, or need-based financial aid criteria that are not tied to race. A college that dropped legacy admissions or changed its athletic recruiting after 2023 made that choice separately, not because the ruling required it.
What this means in practice if you are applying from outside the US
Your race is no longer a factor a college scores directly, whether you come from a country the college has historically enrolled few students from or one it enrolls many from. Your nationality and the geographic mix you add to the class still count as a plus in holistic review, argued as a nationality-based interest rather than a race-based one.
Write about ethnicity, culture, religion, or your family's history in your essays if that is genuinely part of your story. Colleges read that writing as insight into who you are, not as a box that earns extra points on its own. Keep the writing about your own experience and reflection rather than a general statement about identity groups.
Watch scholarship eligibility criteria more closely than admissions policy itself. Some scholarships that used to explicitly target underrepresented racial or ethnic groups have rewritten their criteria since 2023, and the February 2025 guidance is pushing more of them to review this again. Check a scholarship's published eligibility page for the current cycle rather than relying on older marketing material.
Practical steps for your application
Write your identity into your essay only if it is genuinely part of your story, not as a way to signal diversity
Do not read a college's demographic mix from a single year of data, since enrollment numbers move with visa policy and application volume too
Check a scholarship's eligibility page for the current cycle before you rely on criteria you read about from before 2023