It likely will come as no surprise to readers of this site that researchers at Stanford's Center for Educational Policy have found that the content of college application essays is more strongly correlated with family income than SAT scores. While there has been a great deal of discussion about "test free" admissions to minimize social-class bias in admissions to selective colleges, this is the first study to document that traces of social-class are evident across other elements of wholistic application reviews.
Based on computer analysis of the essays of 60,000 undergraduate applications to the University of California, the study suggests that while coaching first-generation students on writing compelling essays may be helpful in increasing the odds of admission for some, rethinking what applicants are asked to document in their submissions may ultimately be necessary if evaluators are to fairly screen the many files from ever-larger, ever more diverse applicant pools.
Simply assuming that we already know how best to predict who will succeed once admitted – based on decades of review of conventional application materials from privileged white students – seems willfully short-sighted unless admissions teams actually do assume that privileged white students are inherently more qualified that others.
