Like many other stressed-out, kind-of-neurotic seniors applying for college, my Google Drive has transformed into a host of spreadsheets and pros and cons lists. As I fine-tune my list of colleges to apply to, I consider different criteria – how far away is it from home? How much is tuition? What’s the weather like? But recently, I’ve had to add a consideration that is unique to the class of 2026: Where do they stand in the current DEI and higher education landscape?
I would love to tune it out, but I can’t. Daily, there are updates to this ongoing debate. Recently, the Trump administration sent a compact for higher education to nine colleges. It included several stipulations regarding DEI. Colleges that I’m applying to are on that list, and for a few weeks, I was refreshing web articles every day to find out their decisions on signing it. In most of these cases, there’s not a good outcome. One scenario involves losing significant federal funding; the other means that schools are aligning with values I don’t agree with, and gutting programs and designated identity spaces.
In all honesty, I’ve always been the student who counts down the days to graduation. I’ve long looked forward to college, eager to dive deep into my interests, live somewhere new, and meet people who aren’t like me. I have always hoped to go out of state for this reason. At a pre-college summer program I attended this summer, I met so many international students my age that became close friends of mine – many of whom I still keep in touch with, even while navigating different time zones. Now, one stipulation of this education compact proposes limits on the amount of international students that should be accepted.
I’ve also always loved the liberal arts. During college visits, my family and I always hunt for literary magazines, student publications and advertisements for upcoming theater productions on campus. I want to be in a place that values the arts, and values diversity – not a place that will tiptoe around controversial topics, afraid to say the wrong thing.
Applying to colleges now means not knowing where their values stand at any given moment. It means not knowing how they might change in the coming months, or in the next four years. Even between the first draft and final draft of this column, the University of Virginia capitulated to the Trump administration to avoid a civil rights investigation. I don’t want to commit to a college in March that will undergo drastic changes during the summer. I shouldn’t have to play a constant guessing game with the colleges on my application list. Between juggling an intense academic workload and too many extracurriculars, writing supplementals and filling out CommonApp, and dealing with the other stressors of senior year, there just isn’t time to navigate this constantly changing environment of DEI in higher education.
I want to look forward to college without any inhibitions. I want to be confident in choosing a college that aligns with my values. But that just isn’t guaranteed. I’ve looked forward to college for all of high school. It isn’t fair that my senior year has coincided with fundamental threats to higher education. So, give some grace to the class of 2026 — this isn’t a typical college-application season, and I’m trying my best.
A version of this editor’s note appears in print on page 2 of Volume 96, Issue 2, published Oct. 28, 2025.
