Traditional-Age

Enrollment in the state has plummeted, but it has one of the highest ratios of institutions to students in the country. The result is fierce competition over a dwindling pool of applicants.

The most powerful contemporary magic is to transform money into “merit,” Musa al-Gharbi writes.

It may help to identify minority students, but experts caution against expecting essays to replace affirmative action.

A more inclusive definition of merit provides an opportunity for higher ed to reinvent itself after the Supreme Court’s damaging decision, Demetria D. Frank, Darrell D. Jackson and Jamila Jefferson-Jones write.

The Supreme Court decision on affirmative action won’t change deeper reasons Asian Americans are disadvantaged in elite college admissions, Leelila Strogov writes.

Students and supporters of affirmative action also descended on the Supreme Court, pledging to continue fighting to make higher education accessible to students from underrepresented backgrounds.

The university’s decision to waive tuition for lower-income North and South Carolinians is officially about equity. But its potential as a recruitment tool for underserved students connects it to affirmative action’s fate.

The show doesn’t get everything right, but on the most important points, it does.