College Admissions

Any day now, the Supreme Court will announce its decision in the Fisher vs. University of Texas case, which could invalidate the use of race-conscious policies in college admissions. Some Asian American groups, such as the 80-20 Education Foundation, have been among the most vocal and visible in opposing what's broadly termed affirmative action. They believe getting rid of race considerations will work to the advantage of Asian Americans, who on average have held more extracurricular leadership positions and have higher test scores and grade-point averages than whites, yet have the lowest acceptance rate to elite private universities.

Any day now, the Supreme Court will announce its decision in the Fisher vs. University of Texas case, which could invalidate the use of race-conscious policies in college admissions. Some Asian American groups, such as the 80-20 Education Foundation, have been among the most vocal and visible in opposing what's broadly termed affirmative action. They believe getting rid of race considerations will work to the advantage of Asian Americans, who on average have held more extracurricular leadership positions and have higher test scores and grade-point averages than whites, yet have the lowest acceptance rate to elite private universities.

BEIJING - When the precocious 18-year-old applied for early admission to Beijing's International Relations University last year, she knew it was a long shot even with her outstanding scores on the gaokao , the all-important college admissions test, which put her in the top 6% of graduating seniors in her province. She wasn't crushed when she was rejected by the school, but she was later, when she found out that male applicants with lower scores had been accepted. "It's not fair," said the young woman, who asked to be quoted only by her nickname, Kale (pronounced Kala)

BEIJING - When the precocious 18-year-old applied for early admission to Beijing's International Relations University last year, she knew it was a long shot even with her outstanding scores on the gaokao , the all-important college admissions test, which put her in the top 6% of graduating seniors in her province. She wasn't crushed when she was rejected by the school, but she was later, when she found out that male applicants with lower scores had been accepted. "It's not fair," said the young woman, who asked to be quoted only by her nickname, Kale (pronounced Kala)

The gray-and-green warehouse in suburban Concord seems an unlikely headquarters for a statewide detective operation, and the fact checkers at work there insist they are not mercilessly probing the lives of California's teenagers. Still, there is an element of hard-boiled sleuthing in the University of California's unusual attempt to ensure that its 98,000 freshman applicants tell the truth about themselves and their extracurricular activities.

So you want to go to Stanford. You've made a 4.0 grade-point average. You've shown yourself to be a well-rounded person with your exhaustive list of extracurricular activities. You've submitted your application to the admissions office, including a creative essay that reflects your exceptional skills. But wait. There are 16,135 applicants for the 2,500 freshman slots at the West Coast's most prestigious university. And there are more than 2,500 applicants who also have a 4.

It seems that Yat-pang Au's parents could have given him more assistance in planning his college career. Several other UC campuses have strong engineering programs, not to mention private colleges such as MIT and Stanford. Coming from one of the Bay Area's most exclusive suburbs, why did they leave these options unexplored? Pete Tremblay Manhattan Beach

I'm flipping a coin. Pick heads or tails. OK, now which did you pick and why? Actually, never mind. It doesn't matter. Because unlike with college admission employees around the country, how I view your answer won't affect if you get into a university or not. But for students applying to places like the University of Chicago, it's a new reality. Garrett Brinker, an admissions official for the University of Chicago, told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's story that questions like “So where is Waldo, really?

Tools for getting into college: GPA, SAT ? and Facebook? The website StudentAdvisor reports at least one case of an applicant being rejected because of something in his or her social media profile. And one interviewer has said she is "absolutely" prejudiced by what she sees online about candidates. "I think it's always better to be safe than sorry," Allison Otis, who conducts interviews for Harvard College, posted in a thread on the website Quora. "When you apply to college you spend such a long time crafting an image through your applications and essays that to be careless about your online data is just silly.

I'm flipping a coin. Pick heads or tails. OK, now which did you pick and why? Actually, never mind. It doesn't matter. Because unlike with college admission employees around the country, how I view your answer won't affect if you get into a university or not. But for students applying to places like the University of Chicago, it's a new reality. Garrett Brinker, an admissions official for the University of Chicago, told the Los Angeles Times in Wednesday's story that questions like “So where is Waldo, really?

"So where is Waldo, really?" That's not the kind of question most high school seniors expect to find on their college admission applications. But it is one of the essay options that applicants to the University of Chicago face this year in their quest for a coveted freshman berth. It is the kind of mind-stretching, offbeat or downright freaky essay question that is becoming more common these days as colleges and universities seek to pierce the fog of students' traditional self-aggrandizing essays detailing their accomplishments and hardships.

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court's conservative justices seemed inclined Wednesday to strike down a University of Texas affirmative action plan, but did not make it clear how far they might go in outlawing the use of race in admissions at all colleges and universities.   In his opening question, Chief Justice John G. Roberts noted that applicants to the University of Texas must check a box to certify their race or ethnicity. Roberts asked whether a student who is one-fourth Hispanic would qualify as a minority.

There are good reasons the Wednesday argument before the Supreme Court in the case called Fisher vs. University of Texas has prompted more than the usual amount of speculation about the intentions of the justices and the case's likely outcome. For higher education and, we believe, American society at large, the stakes could not be higher. Abigail Fisher's claim that the University of Texas unconstitutionally considered race in assembling its incoming undergraduate class - resulting, she argues, in her exclusion from the student body - reengages one of the most consequential legal and moral debates in American history.

Three months ago, the New York Times reported that the composition of the U.S. Supreme Court likely would become “a significant issue in the presidential campaign.” On Sunday, Los Angeles Times Supreme Court reporter David Savage reported that the reelection of President Obama or his replacement by Mitt Romney could tilt the court markedly left or right. Yet the issue of Supreme Court nominees and how the two candidates would make their selections has been solidly on the sidelines and seems destined to remain so in the roughly five weeks remaining in the presidential race.

AUSTIN, Texas - After a U.S. appeals court struck down race-based college admissions in Texas 16 years ago, the first Mexican American woman elected to the state Legislature proposed a simple change that transformed education in the state. Rep. Irma Rangel said all students who graduated in the top 10% of their high school class should win admission to the state's colleges, including the highly regarded University of Texas. Her bill, signed into law by then-Gov. George W. Bush, opened the door to higher education for Mexican American students from the Rio Grande Valley, for black students from Dallas and Houston and for rural white students.

At the same time that public schools are placing heavier emphasis on a single standardized test -- the annual standards exam that each state offers -- colleges are edging in the other direction. More are de-emphasizing the SAT, which for years ruled the college admissions scene. And though their motives for this might have a tinge of self-interest, this new flexibility in college admissions is a welcome change. The original intent of the SAT (which used to stand for Scholastic Aptitude Test but now is the official name of the exam)

He's only 11. Still, BJ Bae blended in with the thousands of people of Korean heritage who swarmed an Orange County college fair this weekend. He stopped to sign up for a concentration test so "I can know what job might be good for me. " Angela Kim, 10, headed straight for the Stanford University table, then UC Berkeley, then Columbia University. "We have lots of choices," she said confidently. The mothers of both children tagged along, stuffing handbooks into their bags, promising to review them together when they get home.