If you’re working with a student of color who has mentioned their race or ethnicity in conversations, meetings, recommendation questionnaires/“brag sheet,” or other documents shared with you—and how it may have influenced their quality of character or unique abilities—you may want to consider including that context as part of your recommendation letter.
Why?
We’ll dive into that, and how to do so, below.
Here we go.
A brief explanation of the 2023 SCOTUS decision
On August 14, 2023, the U.S. Department of Education released a document titled “Questions and Answers Regarding The Supreme Court’s Decision in Students For Fair Admissions, Inc. v. Harvard College and University Of North Carolina.”
This document provides thorough examples and points of clarification around how colleges can continue to recruit and support a diverse student body in a legally permissible way, following the June 2023 decision that banned race-conscious admissions in the U.S.
While much of the guidance centers on ways that students can talk about lived experience in their own application essays (Important side note: We have a blog with examples to help students who are considering writing about race in their application), recommendation letters are explicitly mentioned as a source that admissions officers can analyze to better understand how a student’s race may relate to their quality of character or unique abilities:
“…Universities may continue to embrace appropriate considerations through holistic application-review processes and (for example) provide opportunities to assess how applicants’ individual backgrounds and attributes—including those related to their race…—position them to contribute to campus in unique ways. For example, a university could consider an applicant’s explanation about what it means to him to be the first Black violinist in his city’s youth orchestra… An institution could likewise consider a guidance counselor or other recommender’s description of how an applicant conquered her feelings of isolation as a Latina student at an overwhelmingly white high school to join the debate team.”
This news came as a relief to many counselors and equity-minded educators, who are able to continue including information about a student’s lived experience in their recommendations without fear that this valuable context will be omitted as part of an admissions committee’s full understanding of the applicant and their goals, motivations, and areas of achievement.
But first, here are some important rec letter dos and don’ts:
Examples of appropriate ways to talk about a student’s identity in counselor recommendation letters:
1. Involvement in identity-based activities, groups or organizations
Whether a student is part of an affinity group, language program, religious community, or anything in between, this is a key place to talk about a “formal” way that a student has been able to explore their identity.
It communicates how a student intentionally spends their spare time, what they value, and who they choose to surround themself with.
It’s particularly helpful to share what the student’s specific involvement has been in that activity, if you have more detail from your conversations/questionnaire (if you don’t have your own, click on this link to copy questionnaire), like we see in this example:
Nick wastes no time pursuing justice through challenging our school’s predominantly Chinese-American Asian affinity group to elevate Vietnamese and Indonesian voices, weaving activism lessons into his Pacific Street Center middle school teaching internship, and organizing hackathons around gender equality, sustainability, and education access as Teen Innovation Lab’s Chief Technology Officer. With his powerful voice and platform of choice, Nick Vo is a legend in the making.
In this second example, we see several character attributes—bravery, dedication, pride and self-assuredness—that are connected to this student’s Native identity and the formal activities/communities they engage in:
Kalen finds a pack in his Native community. He is a tribal member of the Qagan Tayagungin Aleuts from Sandpoint, Alaska, and he and his entire extended family are actively involved in the Puyallup tribe. His uncles, leaders within this community, are particularly inspiring to Kalen. Our school, in contrast, has very little Native representation– but that does not stop Kalen from showing his cultural pride on campus– both through his attire (he wears an Aleut mask to school) and his actions. Kalen is a co-leader of our Native American Student Coalition (NASC), which he’s been a part of since 9th grade. He is currently working with our administration and tribal leaders to formalize a land acknowledgement to honor the Duwamish, Suquamish, and Muckleshoot Tribes, whose land our school occupies. I am so proud and impressed by Kalen’s conviction in his advocacy for Native people, and it’s beautiful to see him take pride in this part of his identity.
2. Using direct quotations from a student about their identity
If you have a questionnaire that asks students about their identities (side note: our Social Identities and If You Really, Really Knew Me exercises might serve as great source material for these questions), it’s highly likely that students may have included first-hand testimonials on their identities that would be helpful to an admission officer.
Sometimes students choose to weave these responses and reflections into their college application through their essays, but not always. Thus, even if similar points might be repeated elsewhere in a student’s application in some capacity, including them in your letter increases the likelihood that they’ll be considered.
Here’s an example of one student’s personal journey with his Vietnamese and Indonesian identity (included as a block quote):
Today, Nick is proudly “All-American” and Asian-American. Many elements of his narrative sound straight out of Friday Night Lights: from his fashion choices (fur-lined jackets and bootcut jeans a-la-2003), to captaining our wrestling team, to his recent forays into fly fishing and car racing with his older brother (hobbies rarely seen in New England). At the same time, Nick has come to embrace his Vietnamese and Indonesian roots—something he used to shun:
“I recall vividly being so embarrassed about my cultural ignorance in elementary and middle school that I would lie to my friends about partially knowing my mother tongue. My freshman year, I underwent a seriously negative backlash, opting to reject my heritage outright, at once writing in an essay, “I am an American” as a vehement denunciation of my ethnic background. A long journey brought me around, culminating when I recently visited family in Indonesia for the first time in ten years and traveled with them through the most beautiful tour of culture and countryside I had ever seen.”
Here’s another example that explicitly ties this student’s cultural and racial background to her character, citing her own words:
Much of Melat’s humility stems from her Ethiopian immigrant family. Mom put herself through college to become a nurse, and dad works as a taxi driver. “My mother's being able to attend and graduate college versus my father's explicit regret of not attending college has definitely influenced my perspective,” she shared. Melat’s home is somewhat of a revolving door, with endless combinations of extended family—from multiple generations—cycling through each year. She’s often had to put her wants and needs second, and is intrinsically flexible.
3. Contextual comparisons
Similar to the example cited by the Departments of Justice and Education (“a Latina student who conquered her feelings of isolation at an overwhelmingly white high school through the debate team”), it’s helpful to mention communities that a student of color has joined to find solidarity, particularly if their default environment does not have substantial representation of their own identity:
College Success Foundation has taught Jason that a bright future is ahead. As a Black man wading through extraordinary privilege at Pondview, this community of fellow driven low-income students of color has been Jason’s main source of solidarity.
Here are a few other examples of how you can compare/contrast a student’s lived experience within their broader context—especially if their experience is anomalous in any way from “the norm” around them:
Anything Ned puts his mind to, he does. Piano? He got himself a discount keyboard and watched enough YouTube tutorials to play his favorite hip-hop songs. Collecting enough hardware to build his own computer? He did that, too. While many of his wealthy peers have private music lessons and spare parts from their Apple parents at their disposal, Ned continues to be a self-made man. Already having worked three jobs in high school, he’s navigated the challenges of his single-parent, low-income household with true grit. His dad left when he was in kindergarten, and he has a brother twelve years older, so it’s mostly him and his mom against the world. But to Ned, it’s a wonderful world– full of scientific and technological innovations yet to be discovered. And this is what keeps his spark alive.
_ _ _
Andrea’s family obligations have significantly impacted her cocurricular life. Because her extended family have cycled in and out of her house, Andrea’s ability to commit to traditional extracurriculars has been hindered many times. There are periods where she’ll have to pick up more of the household chores and cooking, or care for cousins or elderly family members living in the room. Knowing that she will be heading off to college soon, Andrea’s family have been cognizant about relying on her less within the home. Her part time job at Regal Cinema and involvement with STiSA have made her excited to start to build her own life and path in college – which I’m looking forward to hearing about!
4. Intentional, identity-rooted college choices
In forming their college list, students often sort through a laundry list of preferences: from geography, to size, to selectivity, and much more.
Attending a diverse college has become an important piece of many students’ college wish list. In fact, in a 2022 Niche.com survey of over 20,000 high-schoolers, half the students mentioned a diverse campus as a “must-have” feature of their future college.
If you’re working with a student who’s mentioned or indicated a preference for a college campus that has particular resources, centers, majors, or a demographic landscape that connects to their race, this can be valuable to mention, as demonstrated in this example:
Osman has grit and intentionality. Upon immigrating from Sudan, the Hassans have lived in several neighborhoods in Seattle: from Lake City, to Ballard, to now West Seattle (specifically High Point, a historically more violent area of the city). To get to Pondview [High School], he goes to work early with his parents and takes the hour-long bus ride north. Osman’s myriad communities have taught him the value of drive and resilience and have helped him realize how much he cherishes diversity. He’s specifically applied to colleges that have robust support and a growing community of Black students where he can find solidarity.
5. Intellectual curiosity and identity
Beyond extracurriculars, many students approach academics as a way to explore their culture and identity more extensively.
If you have examples of a particular paper, project, assignment, or research focus that connects to a student’s race or identity, this detail can be directly linked to a student’s intellectual curiosity—which is cited by many colleges as a quality that’s central to their mission and campus culture.
At some high schools, teacher comments and evaluations are available as part of a student’s file. These can sometimes provide great testimonials about a student’s academic work that may connect to their identity, and are appropriate for you to include in your counselor letter (especially if you know that the student is not asking said teacher for a recommendation).
Here’s an example of this:
Brittany consciously chooses courses that amplify Black voices and issues that Black communities face, including Studies in Literature: The South (which, as a junior, she took with a class entirely of seniors) and Blue Planet (a science class that includes a unit on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan, and partnerships with local nonprofits related to water rights). Indeed, her social justice consciousness is reflected in her scholarship. Here are a few examples [referenced by her teachers]:
“She immediately identified urban rebellions, policing practices, and riot commissions as her topic. Britney then studiously read source material to gain the background knowledge she needed to move forward. It served as a catalyst for one of the best discussions we’ve had on the legacy of institutional discrimination and the best ways to combat it. Brittany’s project explored riots in Detroit (1967) and Los Angeles (1992); in particular, the role of the media in facilitating urban unrest and racialized inequality. She succeeded in proving her case and offering powerful thoughts on the resilience of racism, the dangers of stereotypes in media, and the urgency of current #BLM protests.”
Tom Campbell (he/him) is an eternally extra Gemini who has spent the past seven years helping students and families navigate the college admissions process—one alliterative/assonant aphorism at a time. Prior to joining College Essay Guy, he worked as a college counselor at Lakeside School and an admissions officer at Pomona College and College of the Holy Cross (his alma mater). He stans em dashes and semicolons, Kacey Musgraves (all eras, not just star crossed and Golden Hour), superior breakfast burritos, and complaining about space tourism.
Top Values: Authenticity | Fun | Vulnerability
