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UKEssays have been providing help and assistance to students since our formation in 2003. Since then we have complete thousands of essays and assignments to students from all four corners of the globe across a diverse range of subjects and specialities.

One of the main reasons for UKEssays' success is our continued drive to improve the quality of our work and the experience of our customers. With an independently verified Reviews.io rating of 88%, and extensive press and media coverage, you know that we are a company you can trust with your academic future.

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UK Essays Reviews

Whenever a customer places an order with UK Essays they are given the opportunity to leave a review of their experience. These reviews are handled by various independent review sites such as Reviews.io, Sitejabber, Google, Facebook and more.

I ordered a plan to help me with a difficult question I wasn't sure where to start. I used the plan to write my full essay and it worked great, gave me everything I needed to understand. Really good value. Cho S

The writer followed my instructions perfectly and produced an excellent piece of work. I’m delighted with the results. Oliver K

This is actually legitimate and not a scam. Used it multiple times. David M

Without hesitation, UK Essays under took a very difficult task to help me with my Essay, No corrections or criticism were necessary at delivery. I am proud to recommend UK Essays to three of my friends, with confidence. Bem K

To sum it up in one word ... Excellent!!! I chose UK Essay after a LOT of research because it is difficult to trust reviews with all the competitors bad mouthing each other with fake reviews or companies posting fake reviews about themselves. UK Essays has excellent customer service, timely delivery and will meet all your requirements. Their website is easy to navigate and you know what is going on with your order. Asia S

At first I was wary because of bad reviews, but they are not true at all! I mentioned this to the staff when placing an order and I was told that a lot of competitors post fake reviews about them, but they never "fight back" as it is unethical. Sarah P

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UK Essays has a rating of 4.33 stars from 43 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally satisfied with their purchases. Reviewers satisfied with UK Essays most frequently mention quality work. UK Essays ranks 45th among Tutor sites.

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• Yes, they are not the cheapest by any means, but the cheaper company I used provided a cheaper service.
• very good quality work from a top writer, really couldn't have managed it with out your help.

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“The best!”

These guys helped me complete my essay when I was travelling to africa. I was on a busy schedule and not free

“Poster”

I received superficial poster, with a figure has no sense and it is not relevent and not accurate, half of the poster of variables that is not neccessary to mention I wasted money and time, you pay high to get high quality, but no value for what you paid My order is Master level with distinction, any bachelor student can do much better

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I have already paid for my dissertation, why they need some documents (identity, address,...) i have already paid for my dissertation, why they need some documents (identity, address,...).

Hello Behnosh, For security reasons we ask for identification if a payment is unverified. This happens if a person has made an unverified payment by card/PayPal, or if they have made a PayPal payment over £500. We ask for identification which can be any form of ID with a colour picture on it, an official document with your name and address on (a phone bill, bank statement etc.). Exact details of this will be in your account message. We also have a live chat option on our website, where we can instantly answer your questions and access your order details for you should you need any further help. This service is open 7 days a week - 9am to 9pm Weekdays and 10am - 6pm at Weekends (GMT+1). Please contact me if you require any further assitance. Kind Regards, UK Essays.

How much is a 4500 words essay How much is a 4500 words essay

Hi Ivy, Thank you for your question. To view our pricing, we recommend checking our website for full details, as this depends on the grade you require and delivery time, along with some other factors. Kind Regards, Sam

I have four days until a small research project for my english literature access course is due can somebody help pleeease I have four days until a small research project for my english literature access course is due can somebody help pleeease

Hi Victoria, Thanks for your question! We certainly should be able to help. You can order a quick delivery order - we would recommend at least 3 days - in order to get your order back in advance of your deadline. I would suggest placing your order on the website as soon as possible to get some help!

Would i be able to get a writer to write a 2000 word essay with citations in a 6-7 days, its last minute. Would i be able to get a writer to write a 2000 word essay with citations in a 6-7 days, its last minute.

Hi Eve, Thanks very much for your question - certainly, we could help with that! Our standard delivery period is 7 days, with shorter options right up to same-day delivery available. Please check out our order form and place your request as soon as possible so we can look to locate a writer for you. Kind Regards, Sam

I failed my case study and need to pass this time in order continue on my course. ifi send you my failed essay, will you be able to help me pass. I failed my case study and need to pass this time in order continue on my course. ifi send you my failed essay, will you be able to help me pass.

Hi Marshall, Thanks for your message. This is definitely something we would be able to help with - if you can place an order on your website we can look into this further for you. Kind Regards, Sam

Do you no longer provide a service to customers in the irish republic? Do you no longer provide a service to customers in the irish republic?

Hi James, Thanks for your question. Unfortunately due to new legislation introduced in Ireland in July 2019, we can no longer offer our services to customers located in the Irish Republic. Kind Regards, Sam

Do you provide references when you deliver assignments? my assignment require that i provide references from accademic literature (at least 10) Do you provide references when you deliver assignments? my assignment require that i provide references from accademic literature (at least 10)

Hi Lucy, Thanks for your question. All our work comes fully referenced (unless requested otherwise), to the style of referencing you require. Kind Regards, Sam

How much do you charge for 2000 word essay in audiology field? How much do you charge for 2000 word essay in audiology field?

Hi Tara, Thanks for getting in touch! A 2000 word essay would start from approx £247, depending on the grade you wish to order. Kind Regards, Sam

The importance of value based manangement The importance of value based manangement

Hi Brandon, Thanks for your inquiry! If this is something you're looking for help with, please get in touch via our website! Kind Regards, Sam

How long does it take for uk essays to complete an undergraduate essay? How long does it take for uk essays to complete an undergraduate essay?

Hi Darcy, Thanks for getting in touch. Our standard delivery time for an essay is 7 days, but you can order faster deliveries if you like - as quick as 4 hourd or next day (depending on the word count). Kind Regards, Sam

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From the business

UK Essays is a UK-based essay writing company established in 2003. We specialise in providing students with high quality essay and dissertation writing services.

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Business History

Barclay Littlewood founded the company in 2003. From Day One he instilled an aim to strive for excellence in the company. Barclay created many of the service features and introduced the list of unrivalled guarantees that have placed us firmly at the helm of the essay writing services market.

Company Representative

Without doubts, the leading academic writing service UKEssays is considered as the most famous in the world. This is not just writing essay website; it is a huge corporation! Their parts are Law Teacher (custom writing service), Viper (plagiarism checker), and Academic Knowledge (freelance writing platform). Excellent quality, on-time delivery and grade guarantee. The only minus that I found is their prices. Fairly said, the most expensive writing website you may ever find.

Ukessays.com: Service Review

Barclay Littlewood founded the company in 2003. He has his own page on Wikipedia, and you can check it here ( link ). They won a few much-publicized cases and obtained the reputation of a reliable company.

Virtually, they close their eyes to the usage of their paper, but when I asked one their support team if I can use the paper and they told me that I am not allowed to. The prices are really high! No free essays online UKEssays company can offer to you.

131$ per page is the lowest quote! They do guarantee grades, but in case of a bad grade, you have to provide a grade report that should be valid to their Manager. Finally, I can say that my UKEssays review is fairly good one.

Strengths and Weaknesses

• The paper quality is pretty good
• A 60-day deadline is available
• On-time delivery
• An excellent aftercare service
• British English only
• Extremely high prices
• Tricky revision policy
• Support agents are not always available

Ukessays: Testimonials

They have an excellent reputation. UKEssays is considered to be the only one legit academic writing service in the world. Some people complain about their money-back guarantee when it comes to a bad grade, but they are the minority.

Overall, the UKEssays reviews are great. Although their reputation as writing service is clean, I found their search engine optimization fraudulent. In my summary, I mentioned Viper plagiarism checker or scanmyessay.com that is very popular as well as Turnitin and SafeAssign, and the friend of mine complained about it. She says that all papers submitted for plagiarism check they use as samples for their services.

Certainly, they do not publish it immediately but after a few months. So she found her draft in their Sample section and asked to remove it.

She sent the original paper, and to avoid any legal actions against the company they removed the paper.

Now you will think twice before checking your papers in their system. Thus, the ukessays review comes to be mediocre. To see the reviews on their website, you can check this link .

Ukessays Review: Assurances

The company has sophisticated system or terms, so you have to be a lawyer to understand them all. They have Fair Use Policy, Terms & Conditions, and Privacy Policy . According to them, you cannot submit your paper as your own, but they will never search for it. Also, grade guarantee works well, so they really work on your paper to get the highest grade possible.

Important! `Where the Customer detects plagiarism in the Work, the Principal will pay the Customer the sum of 5,000`. It works even for small papers, so I wish my paper was plagiarized, but it was not.

Scope of Services

Truly the widest list of the papers available I have ever seen:

• Academic Writing
• Cover letter
• Critical analysis
• Literature review
• Annotated Bibliography
• Editing/Proofreading
• All paper types
• Other Services
• Essay Presentation
• PowerPoint slides

Purchase Procedure

The ordering process starts from https://ukessays.com/order/ where you have to fill all the fields. Here is what you need to do.

• Enter your name, username, and password.
• Pick the type of country of assignment.
• Specify the paper type, the subject area, overall length, and grade required.
• Set the delivery time.
• Add some extra requirements.
• Pay for your assignment.

As you can see, the last step will be the payment, and after it's done, you will get a confirmation that the orders were placed. You can always ask support agents to help you in this matter; they are very supportive.

Ukessays.com Review: Cost Structure

All prices are crazy here. I wish I were a son of some king to complete Oxford University using this service. There is no place for free essays UKEssays can grant you. The minimum quote I found is $114 for 1 page for the worst paper they could deliver. Here are the prices you should rely on.

They do have discount codes for the first-timers, but it will not help you much. More UKEssays discounts you can find at scamfighter.net/top-writing-services by clicking the discount icon. Once I asked them about the UKEssays discount code from their manager, you can see what he replied.

Quality of Work

Their papers are pretty good; fine quality of the writing. There can be some misunderstandings, but usually, it is one shot without revisions. I was chuffed to bits with the paper. The UKEssays APA, MLA, Chicago, and Harvard papers are good! I ordered a 7-page research paper on Marketing and asked the writer to focus on digital methods for promoting products and services.

In addition, I have uploaded a detailed list with all the requirements. Overall, I liked the final result. The writer made a few minor mistakes and a slightly blurry introduction.

Reflecting on the overall experience, I must acknowledge that the quality of the paper received from UK Essays was satisfactory. The content was well-written, clearly understood the topic, and was delivered promptly. These aspects indeed affirm their capability to deliver high-standard academic work.

However, there's a significant drawback concerning the cost of their services. The pricing is steep, and this could pose a challenge for many students. Paying hundreds of dollars for a simple essay is beyond what many are willing or able to afford. It would benefit current and potential clients if UK Essays would consider offering more competitive or value-based pricing. Doing so could potentially broaden their customer base and increase overall client satisfaction.

In this UK Essays review, it's clear that the quality of the paper received was not disappointing. The final result met the expectations, and the content was well-structured and high-quality, instilling satisfaction with the outcome. However, this sense of contentment does not fully extend to the overall experience with the service.

Indeed, UK Essays offers a competent service but at a high cost. Many other companies, such as new essays UK service, provide similar services at a substantially lower price. This discrepancy creates a noticeable gap in value for money, which is a significant factor for many students operating under financial constraints. Furthermore, the customer support experience was not entirely satisfactory.

UK Essays Review: Client Assistance

I would say that it is a very friendly service. The only thing is I don't like when my phone calls are being recorded, and a chat was not very helpful as the girl whom I was chatting to sent me tons of smiles with template answers. The customer support function has become a key consideration when selecting the best Essays UK service, as it is essential in addressing issues and providing immediate solutions.

However, an area of concern with UK Essays' customer support seems to be their approach to customer interaction. The agents appear to provide standardized responses, which might be sufficient for common issues but lack the personalized attention many users appreciate. The lack of opportunity for improvisation means that solutions offered often feel pre-formulated, potentially copied from a pre-prepared FAQ list.

It can be quite frustrating for the customer seeking direct and personalized help. Moreover, given the cost of using this service – almost two hundred dollars for a basic essay – customers might naturally expect a more tailored and interactive support experience.

Several UK Essays reviews have also noted this dissatisfaction with the customer support function. These reviews highlight the need for an improved approach that caters to individual client needs more effectively.

Providing better customer support could be crucial for a company like UK Essays, which positions itself as a premier service. While their support may satisfactorily address basic concerns, the seeming lack of personalized interaction may dissatisfy some customers. Thus, improving this aspect could potentially elevate the customer experience and align it with the service's cost.

Promotions and Additional Services

You will not need any extra feature at this level. Just choose the desired grade and go for it. Drafts can be sent if you ask for it. Nevertheless, UKWritings offers a couple of paper extras, including the chance for clients to have their papers written by a top expert. It signifies their dedication to delivering top-quality work. However, it's important to note that this service has an elevated price tag, making it potentially prohibitive for some students. Such a financial barrier might deter many from taking advantage of this particular offer, thereby impacting the overall usability of the service.

Moreover, UKWritings provides other options, like receiving explanatory notes with the ordered paper. This feature can be beneficial for students looking to deepen their understanding of the topic or the approach taken in the essay. Still, again, the price associated with this service is significant, which may limit its appeal and usefulness for a broad audience.

One unique feature that Ukessays.com offers is delivering your paper before the deadline. While this might appear advantageous, it is also a service that demands a higher cost. Thus, the practicality of such an offer becomes debatable, particularly when considering the financial constraints of many students.

UK Essays seems to provide many premium services, presenting itself as a high-end writing solution. However, given the additional costs for these extra services, it does create an impression that these 'extras' might be out of reach for many students. Consequently, the usefulness of these additional offerings may be somewhat diminished.

While these services may enhance the work's quality and enrich the client's understanding, the high costs associated with them might render them partially impractical, thus creating the perception that the company provides potentially less useful paper extras. This situation might lead some to question the real value of such services about the overall cost incurred.

So agents were available and prompt. But their approach lacked the personalized touch, and their responses often seemed automated. An additional area for improvement is the lack of popular paper extras that other companies offer. This absence further diminishes the overall appeal of UK Essays, particularly for clients seeking comprehensive services.

Therefore, based on this UK Writings review, it can be concluded that the service is best suited for customers who are not particularly price-sensitive and do not require a broad range of extras. Suppose you're seeking a writing service that provides high-quality work, and you're not deterred by a higher cost or the lack of personalized customer support and additional services. In that case, UK Essays may well be a suitable choice.

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The tell-tale signs students are using chatgpt to help write their essays.

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Researchers have identified key features of ChatGPT-generated content that makes it easier to spot ... [+] (Pic: Getty Creative)

Researchers have identified tell-tale signs that students have used AI to help write their essays.

Excessive used of words derived from Latin, using unnecessary words and repeated use of the Oxford comma are among the hallmarks of using a generative chatbot to complete coursework, researchers found .

But while students taking part in the trial said they found using AI had some advantages, they acknowledged that relying on it completely would likely result in work of a low standard.

The impact of generative AI on education has been exercising educators since Open AI launched ChatGPT — a chatbot that generates text by predicting which words are likely to follow a particular prompt — in November 2022.

While some regard AI as a potentially transformative technology, creating a more inclusive and personalized education, for others it makes it impossible to trust coursework grades. Even academics have not been immune to using AI to enhance their work.

Now researchers at Cambridge University have tried to see if they could identify characteristics of AI’s writing style that could make it easy to spot.

And although their trial was small scale, they say it has the potential to help teachers work out which students used AI in their essays, and which did not.

Three undergraduates were enlisted to write two essays each with the help of ChatGPT, which were then compared with essays on the same topic written by 164 high school students. The undergraduates were then interviewed about their experience of using AI.

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(Undergraduates were included in the study because ChatGPT requires users to be 18 or over).

The ChatGPT essays performed better on average, being marked particularly highly for ‘information’ and ‘reflection’. They did poorly, however, for ‘analysis’ and ‘comparison’ — differences the researchers suggest reflect the chatbot’s strengths and weaknesses.

But when it comes to style, there were a number of features that made the ChatGPT assisted version easily recognizable.

The default AI style “echoes the bland, clipped, and objective style that characterizes much generic journalistic writing found on the internet,” according to the researchers, who identified a number of key features of ChatGPT content:

• A high frequency of words with a Latin root, particularly multisyllable words and a vocabulary above the expected level;
• Paragraphs starting with specific markers, such as ‘however’, ‘moreover’ and ‘overall’, followed by a comma;
• Numbered lists, with items followed by colons;
• Pleonasms: using unnecessary words, such as ‘free gift’ or ‘true fact’;
• Tautology: saying the same thing twice, such as ‘We must come together to unite’;
• Repeating words or phrases;
• Consistent use of Oxford commas, a comma used after the penultimate item in a list, before ‘and’ or ‘or’, for example “ChatGPT has many uses for teaching, learning at home, revision, and assessment”.

Although the students taking part in the trial used ChatGPT to different extents, from copying and pasting whole passages to using it as prompts for further research, there was broad agreement that it was useful for gathering information quickly, and that it could be integrated into essay writing through specific prompts, on topics and essay structure, for example.

But the students also agreed that using AI to write the essay would produce work of a low academic standard.

“Despite the small sample size, we are excited about these findings as they have the capacity to inform the work of teachers as well as students,” said Jude Brady of Cambridge University Press and Assessment, lead researcher on the study.

Future work should include larger and more representative sample sizes of students, she said. Learning to use and detect generative AI was an increasingly important part of digital literacy, she added.

“We hope our research might help people to identify when a piece of text has been written by ChatGPT,” she said.

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Should college essays touch on race? Some feel the affirmative action ruling leaves them no choice

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. (AP Video: Noreen Nasir)

Hillary Amofa listens to others member of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

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Hillary Amofa, laughs as she participates in a team building game with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa, second from left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, stands for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

*Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait outside of the school in Portland, Ore., Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

Hillary Amofa, left, practices with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Hillary Amofa sits for a portrait after her step team practice at Lincoln Park High School Friday, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. When she started writing her college essay, Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. She wrote about being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana, about growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. She described hardship and struggle. Then she deleted it all. “I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18 year-old senior, “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.” (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

FILE - Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action . The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

Hillary Amofa, reflected right, practices in a mirror with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team after school, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WONDERING IF SCHOOLS ‘EXPECT A SOB STORY’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. ... I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

Max Decker, a senior at Lincoln High School, sits for a portrait in the school library where he often worked on writing his college essays, in Portland, Ore., March 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Amanda Loman)

A RULING PROMPTS PIVOTS ON ESSAY TOPICS

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process . They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

Max Decker reads his college essay on his experience with a leadership group for young Black men. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

Demonstrators protest outside of the Supreme Court in Washington, in this June 29, 2023 file photo, after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in college admissions, saying race cannot be a factor. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)

SPELLING OUT THE IMPACT OF RACE

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black .

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University, and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Hillary Amofa stands for a portrait after practice with members of the Lincoln Park High School step team, March 8, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

WILL SCHOOLS LOSE RACIAL DIVERSITY?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

Hillary Amofa reads her college essay on embracing her natural hair. (AP Video/Noreen Nasir)

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair . She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

Ma reported from Portland, Oregon.

The Associated Press’ education coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org .

Serial Season 4

“Serial” returns with a history of Guantánamo told by people who lived through key moments in Guantánamo’s evolution, who know things the rest of us don’t about what it’s like to be caught inside an improvised justice system.

Published March 21, 2024

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“So, it felt very like college-like… Without it being… Obviously the next day wasn’t classes, it was Gitmo… ”

Poor baby raul, episode 1 — poor baby raul.

“I wanted to create a persona, a thing that was not human.”

The special project, episode 2 — the special project.

• Episode 3 arrives April 4

About Serial Season 4

Right after Sept. 11, the United States created a brand-new criminal justice system at Guantánamo Bay. It was a prison and a court designed to deal with the people we had captured whom we suspected of being members of the Taliban or al Qaeda.

But to do what we wanted to do at Guantánamo — to interrogate detainees the way we wanted, to hold them indefinitely without charging them with a crime — we had to push aside the old, time-tested rules for detaining prisoners of war. And the consequences of that fell on ordinary people: thousands of military personnel, hundreds of prisoners, everybody scrambling through the same experiment.

There has been great journalism about the legal maneuvering to justify Guantánamo, and about the detainee abuse and the politics and policy. But “Serial” reporters Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis were after the inside stories, a picture of Guantánamo you could get only from the people who went through it. For years, though, all the best stories they heard about Guantánamo were off the record. But they stuck with it, figuring maybe once enough people were back in civilian life they’d be willing to tell those stories on the record. A couple of years ago, the “Serial” team started contacting people again: guards, interrogators, commanders, lawyers, chaplains, translators and former prisoners. More than a hundred people. And a remarkable number of them said: Okay, I’m ready. Here’s what happened.

“Serial” Season 4 is a history of Guantánamo told by people who lived through key moments in its evolution, who know things the rest of us don’t about what it’s like to be caught inside an improvised justice system.

• Sofia degli Alessandri is an Italian composer based in London. Her music combines field recordings, synths, chamber instruments and electronic beats. She composes for film, television, dance and other media.
• Hosts Sarah Koenig and Dana Chivvis Producer Jessica Weisberg Editor Julie Snyder Additional Reporting Cora Currier Fact Checking and Research Ben Phelan Additional Fact Checking Jessica Suriano Music supervision, sound design, and mixing Phoebe Wang Original score Sofia degli Alessandri Additional Editing David Kestenbaum, Jen Guerra, Alvin Melathe, Ellen Weiss and Ira Glass Contributing Editors Rozina Ali and Carol Rosenberg Assistant Producer Emma Grillo Translators and Interpreters Raza Sayibzada, Nael Hijjo, Atiq Rahin, Dana El-Issa, Bachar Alhalabi, and Omama Osman Art Direction Pablo Delcan Art Max Guther Standards Editor Susan Wessling Legal Review Al-Amyn Sumar and Maya Gandhi Reporting and Research Amir Khafagy and Sami Yousafazai Additional Production Daniel Guillemette and Katie Mingle Executive Assistant Mack Miller Supervising Producer Ndeye Thioubou Deputy Managing Editor Sam Dolnick
• At the New York Times, thanks to Elizabeth Davis-Moorer, Nina Lassam, Susan Beachy, Kitty Bennett, Alain Delaquérière, Sheelagh McNeill, Kirsten Noyes, Jack Begg, Jeffrey Miranda, Colleen Wormsley, Peter Rentz, John-Michael Murphy, Jordan Cohen, Zoe Murphy, Pierre-Antoine Louis, Mahima Chablani, Kelly Doe, Anisha Muni, Kimmy Tsai, Victoria Kim, Ashka Gami, Brad Fisher, Maddy Masiello, Daniel Powell, Marion Lozano, Tug Wilson and Aisha Khan
• Special thanks Katie Mingle, Jenelle Pifer, Alissa Shipp, Nadia Reiman, Anita Badejo, Katie Fuchs, Alison Beckman at the Center for Victims of Torture, Clive Stafford Smith, Alisa Dogramadzieva, Shuaib Almosawa, Mohamed Elfaki, Freshta Taeb, Edgar August, Esther Whitfield, Lauren Myerscough-Mueller, Mark Fallon, Pardiss Kebriaei, Steve Vladeck, Charlie Savage, Michelle Shephard, Bastian Berbner, John Goetz, Sarah Mirk and everyone involved in “Guantánamo Voices,” Peter Jan Honigsberg, Tim Golden, John Ryan, Stuart Couch, Shayana Kadidal, Ray Rivera, Steven Kleinman, Steve Wood and Lee Riffaterre

Serial is a podcast from the creators of This American Life, hosted by Sarah Koenig. Serial tells one story — a true story — over the course of a season.

A high-school senior named Hae Min Lee disappeared one day after school in 1999, in Baltimore County, Maryland. A month later, her body was found in a city park. She'd been strangled. Her 17-year-old ex-boyfriend, Adnan Syed, was arrested for the crime, and within a year, he was sentenced to life in prison.

In May 2014, a U.S. Special Operations team in a Black Hawk helicopter landed in the hills of Afghanistan. Waiting for them were more than a dozen Taliban fighters and a tall American, who looked pale and out of sorts: Bowe Bergdahl. Bergdahl, a U.S. soldier, had been a prisoner of the Taliban for nearly five years, and now he was going home. Learn more

“Serial” is heading back to court. This time, in Cleveland. Not for one extraordinary case; instead, Serial wanted to tackle the whole criminal justice system. To do that we figured we’d need to look at something different: ordinary cases. So we did. Inside these ordinary cases we found the troubling machinery of the criminal justice system on full display. Learn more

Serial Productions makes narrative podcasts that have transformed the medium. From the powerful forces shaping our public schools to a mystery at the heart of a scandal that rocked Britain, Serial expands the boundaries of audio investigative storytelling. Learn more

Further Reading From The Times

The guantánamo docket, a closer look at what the u.s. lets you see of its war court at guantánamo bay, conditions at guantánamo are cruel and inhuman, u.n. investigation finds.

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Podcasts From The New York Times

The Daily:  The biggest stories, five days a week, including the indictment of Donald Trump , the implosion of Silicon Valley Bank  and the threat to abortion pills .

The Run-Up:  Astead W. Herndon grapples with the big ideas already animating the 2024 election by reporting from inside the political establishment .

Hard Fork:  Kevin Roose and Casey Newton make sense of the world of tech, including Google's Place in the A.I. Arms Race  and the arrival of GPT-4 .

Modern Love: Anna Martin unpacks the complicated love lives of real people, exploring topics like getting ghosted  and how to stop searching for the perfect partner .

Popcast:  A weekly conversation from Jon Caramanica and The Times’s music team, with roundtables on artists like Ice Spice , Taylor Swift  and  SZA .

From Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show:  Real conversations on the forces shaping the world, such as the increasing pace of A.I. development  and China's global influence .

First Person:  Lulu Garcia-Navarro explores intimate conversations about big ideas, like the experiences of a war reporter  and treating obesity as a disease.

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Trump selling Bibles may be desperation – but that shouldn’t cheer anyone up

Despite mockery, Trump has sold trading cards, sneakers, cologne and perfume – and manages to get the last laugh

Donald Trump is a Bible salesman now

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth and, of course, Donald John Trump. The former US president, as we all know, and as he has repeatedly told us, is God’s gift to humanity. He’s basically Jesus … if Jesus were a blond sexual predator from Queens.

As if there were ever any doubt that Trump – who has been accused of sexual misconduct by more than 25 women and is facing 34 criminal charges for paying hush money to an adult film star – is a pious man, he is now hawking Bibles. Earlier this week, the presumptive Republican nominee made headlines for endorsing a patriotic version of the Bible. “Happy Holy Week! Let’s Make America Pray Again,” Trump said as he announced his latest scheme. You can get your hands on the book – the only version endorsed by Trump – for just $59.99 through a website, GodBlessTheUSABible.com.

Where are all the proceeds going? Good question. An FAQ on the site clarifies that Trump is not selling the Bible directly but states that “GodBlessTheUSABible.com uses Donald J Trump’s name, likeness and image under paid license from CIC Ventures LLC”. CIC Ventures is a company that Trump reported owning in his 2023 financial disclosure. In short: it looks like he is getting royalties from the arrangement.

Trump’s superpower is the fact he has absolutely no shame whatsoever; the cash-strapped candidate will do whatever it takes to make a buck. He’s capitalized on his legal troubles by selling merchandise with his mugshot on it , for example. A couple of years ago, he was peddling digital trading cards depicting him dressed up as a superhero. (“Only $99 each!”) Earlier this year, he launched his own sneaker brand , selling Never Surrender High-Tops for $399. While shopping for the shoes, you could also pick up Trump-branded Victory47 cologne and perfume for $99 a bottle. Then, of course, there’s Truth Social: the Twitter clone Trump launched in 2022 .

All of these recent business ventures have inspired much mockery. Despite the copious jokes, however, Trump has always somehow managed to get the last laugh. His digital trading card selection sold out in less than a day, netting $4.5m in sales . His sneakers also sold out hours after launch. As for loss-making Truth Social? That went public on Tuesday and quickly achieved a valuation of almost $8bn .

Selling Bibles, of course, is rather different from selling sneakers or trading cards. Might this be a bridge too far for Trump’s followers?

There has certainly been some criticism of the venture from conservatives. Commentator Charlie Sykes, for example, slammed him for “commodifying the Bible during Holy Week”. However, others on the right are singing the Trump Bible’s praises. “From a Christian perspective, this is one of the the greatest spiritual moments in US history,” Tulsa preacher Jackson Lahmeyer told Real America’s Voice , a rightwing news network.

All in all, it’s unlikely that the white evangelical Christians who are Trump’s most passionate followers care about the hypocrisy of Trump selling Bibles. These people don’t actually labour under the delusion that their hero is a man of God. They just know he’s a useful means to an end. A Pew Research Center report released earlier this month found: “Most people who view Trump positively don’t think he is especially religious himself. But many think he stands up for people with religious beliefs like theirs.” In other words: they don’t care if Trump personally practices what they preach; they just want him to legislate in a way that means others are forced to follow these practices.

This isn’t to say that the Bible venture is some sort of genius strategy by Trump. It is, as many people have pointed out , clearly something of a desperate move by a man who is having trouble fundraising and who knows that if he’s not headed to the White House he may be headed to jail. “Donald Trump is weak and desperate – both as a man and a candidate for president,” James Singer, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign, crowed on Monday. Trump may well be desperate, but that shouldn’t cheer anyone up – least of all the Biden campaign. Few things are more dangerous than a desperate man with nothing to lose.

Former Kansas City Chiefs cheerleader Krystal Anderson, 40, dies after giving birth

Anderson had been diagnosed with sepsis during her pregnancy and, after delivering her stillborn daughter, she experienced organ failure. This is not some tragic one-off: it’s part of a growing national crisis. Maternal deaths in the US have more than doubled since 1999 ; the US has the highest maternal mortality rate among industrialized countries. Black women (Anderson was Black) have the highest maternal mortality rates – almost three times the rate for white women. Activists say this is partly because of institutionalized racism : Black women are not taken seriously by their healthcare professionals when they raise issues – not even if they’re a superstar like Serena Williams. “No one was really listening to what I was saying,” wrote Williams in a 2022 essay about her traumatic birth. “Being heard and appropriately treated was the difference between life or death for me.”

The US supreme court expresses skepticism in abortion pill hearing

On Tuesday, the supreme court heard oral arguments in US Food and Drug Administration v Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, the first abortion case to reach the supreme court since it overturned Roe v Wade . The anti-abortion doctors arguing the case may have gone a little too far in their efforts to ban access to a common abortion pill, mifepristone, as even conservative justices seemed skeptical of their arguments. However, the hearing did bring new attention to the Comstock Act, a 19th-century obscenity law , and its potential to be weaponized by anti-abortion extremists. “[I]f Republicans want to enforce the Comstock Act as a nationwide total abortion ban, they don’t need to win control of Congress,” writes Moira Donegan in the Guardian . “All they need is the White House.”

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People are drinking ‘sexy water’ now

What fresh hell is this? You don’t want to know. But if, actually, you do want to know, then Caitlin Dewey has a refreshing read on performative hydration and how water got entangled with “self-care” culture.

‘I had high breasts, most of my eggs … [and] a pep in my step that had yet to run out … ’

Behold one of the many eyebrow-raising lines in a the Cut essay titled The Case for Marrying an Older Man , which is a masterclass in internalized misogyny.

The Taliban will resume stoning women to death

“The international community has chosen to remain silent in the face of these violations of women’s rights,” one activist said .

A human rights official has resigned from the US state department over Gaza

Annelle Sheline said she was unable to serve as a representative of a government that “was directly enabling what the International Court of Justice has said could plausibly be a genocide in Gaza”. Sheline’s resignation comes as Gaza is on the brink of famine . And, as children in Gaza starve to death, the US continues to blithely enable atrocities: in recent days , Biden authorized the transfer of billions of dollars worth of bombs to Israel.

The week in pawtriarchy

A wildlife rescue in England took in a cute little baby hedgehog, fed it and tried to nurse it back to health. “Our hearts melted,” one volunteer said. Then they realised it was actually a pompom from a bobble hat .

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Sob stories? Trauma dumps? Black kids worry about writing college essays after affirmative action ban

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education, it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions.

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CHICAGO (AP) — When she started writing her college essay, Hillary Amofa told the story she thought admissions offices wanted to hear. About being the daughter of immigrants from Ghana and growing up in a small apartment in Chicago. About hardship and struggle.

Then she deleted it all.

“I would just find myself kind of trauma-dumping,” said the 18-year-old senior at Lincoln Park High School in Chicago. “And I’m just like, this doesn’t really say anything about me as a person.”

When the Supreme Court ended affirmative action in higher education , it left the college essay as one of few places where race can play a role in admissions decisions. For many students of color, instantly more was riding on the already high-stakes writing assignment. Some say they felt pressure to exploit their hardships as they competed for a spot on campus.

Amofa was just starting to think about her essay when the court issued its decision, and it left her with a wave of questions. Could she still write about her race? Could she be penalized for it? She wanted to tell colleges about her heritage but she didn’t want to be defined by it.

In English class, Amofa and her classmates read sample essays that all seemed to focus on some trauma or hardship. It left her with the impression she had to write about her life’s hardest moments to show how far she’d come. But she and some of her classmates wondered if their lives had been hard enough to catch the attention of admissions offices.

“For a lot of students, there’s a feeling of, like, having to go through something so horrible to feel worthy of going to school, which is kind of sad,” said Amofa, the daughter of a hospital technician and an Uber driver.

This year’s senior class is the first in decades to navigate college admissions without affirmative action. The Supreme Court upheld the practice in decisions going back to the 1970s, but this court’s conservative supermajority found it is unconstitutional for colleges to give students extra weight because of their race alone.

Still, the decision left room for race to play an indirect role: Chief Justice John Roberts wrote universities can still consider how an applicant’s life was shaped by their race, “so long as that discussion is concretely tied to a quality of character or unique ability.”

“A benefit to a student who overcame racial discrimination, for example, must be tied to that student’s courage and determination,” he wrote.

Scores of colleges responded with new essay prompts asking about students’ backgrounds. Brown University asked applicants how “an aspect of your growing up has inspired or challenged you.” Rice University asked students how their perspectives were shaped by their “background, experiences, upbringing, and/or racial identity.”

Wondering if schools ‘expect a sob story’

When Darrian Merritt started writing his essay, he knew the stakes were higher than ever because of the court’s decision. His first instinct was to write about events that led to him going to live with his grandmother as a child.

Those were painful memories, but he thought they might play well at schools like Yale, Stanford and Vanderbilt.

“I feel like the admissions committee might expect a sob story or a tragic story,” said Merritt, a senior in Cleveland. “And if you don’t provide that, then maybe they’re not going to feel like you went through enough to deserve having a spot at the university. I wrestled with that a lot.”

He wrote drafts focusing on his childhood, but it never amounted to more than a collection of memories. Eventually he abandoned the idea and aimed for an essay that would stand out for its positivity.

Merritt wrote about a summer camp where he started to feel more comfortable in his own skin. He described embracing his personality and defying his tendency to please others. The essay had humor — it centered on a water gun fight where he had victory in sight but, in a comedic twist, slipped and fell. But the essay also reflects on his feelings of not being “Black enough” and getting made fun of for listening to “white people music.”

“I was like, ‘OK, I’m going to write this for me, and we’re just going to see how it goes,’” he said. “It just felt real, and it felt like an honest story.”

The essay describes a breakthrough as he learned “to take ownership of myself and my future by sharing my true personality with the people I encounter. … I realized that the first chapter of my own story had just been written.”

A ruling prompts pivots on essay topics

Like many students, Max Decker of Portland, Oregon, had drafted a college essay on one topic, only to change direction after the Supreme Court ruling in June.

Decker initially wrote about his love for video games. In a childhood surrounded by constant change, navigating his parents’ divorce, the games he took from place to place on his Nintendo DS were a source of comfort.

But the essay he submitted to colleges focused on the community he found through Word is Bond, a leadership group for young Black men in Portland.

As the only biracial, Jewish kid with divorced parents in a predominantly white, Christian community, Decker wrote he constantly felt like the odd one out. On a trip with Word is Bond to Capitol Hill, he and friends who looked just like him shook hands with lawmakers. The experience, he wrote, changed how he saw himself.

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“It’s because I’m different that I provide something precious to the world, not the other way around,” he wrote.

As a first-generation college student, Decker thought about the subtle ways his peers seemed to know more about navigating the admissions process. They made sure to get into advanced classes at the start of high school, and they knew how to secure glowing letters of recommendation.

If writing about race would give him a slight edge and show admissions officers a fuller picture of his achievements, he wanted to take that small advantage.

His first memory about race, Decker said, was when he went to get a haircut in elementary school and the barber made rude comments about his curly hair. Until recently, the insecurity that moment created led him to keep his hair buzzed short.

Through Word is Bond, Decker said he found a space to explore his identity as a Black man. It was one of the first times he was surrounded by Black peers and saw Black role models. It filled him with a sense of pride in his identity. No more buzzcut.

The pressure to write about race involved a tradeoff with other important things in his life, Decker said. That included his passion for journalism, like the piece he wrote on efforts to revive a once-thriving Black neighborhood in Portland. In the end, he squeezed in 100 characters about his journalism under the application’s activities section.

“My final essay, it felt true to myself. But the difference between that and my other essay was the fact that it wasn’t the truth that I necessarily wanted to share,” said Decker, whose top college choice is Tulane, in New Orleans, because of the region’s diversity. “It felt like I just had to limit the truth I was sharing to what I feel like the world is expecting of me.”

Spelling out the impact of race

Before the Supreme Court ruling, it seemed a given to Imani Laird that colleges would consider the ways that race had touched her life. But now, she felt like she had to spell it out.

As she started her essay, she reflected on how she had faced bias or felt overlooked as a Black student in predominantly white spaces.

There was the year in math class when the teacher kept calling her by the name of another Black student. There were the comments that she’d have an easier time getting into college because she was Black.

“I didn’t have it easier because of my race,” said Laird, a senior at Newton South High School in the Boston suburbs who was accepted at Wellesley and Howard University , and is waiting to hear from several Ivy League colleges. “I had stuff I had to overcome.”

In her final essays, she wrote about her grandfather, who served in the military but was denied access to GI Bill benefits because of his race.

She described how discrimination fueled her ambition to excel and pursue a career in public policy.

“So, I never settled for mediocrity,” she wrote. “Regardless of the subject, my goal in class was not just to participate but to excel. Beyond academics, I wanted to excel while remembering what started this motivation in the first place.”

Will schools lose racial diversity?

Amofa used to think affirmative action was only a factor at schools like Harvard and Yale. After the court’s ruling, she was surprised to find that race was taken into account even at some public universities she was applying to.

Now, without affirmative action, she wondered if mostly white schools will become even whiter.

It’s been on her mind as she chooses between Indiana University and the University of Dayton, both of which have relatively few Black students. When she was one of the only Black students in her grade school, she could fall back on her family and Ghanaian friends at church. At college, she worries about loneliness.

“That’s what I’m nervous about,” she said. “Going and just feeling so isolated, even though I’m constantly around people.”

The first drafts of her essay focused on growing up in a low-income family, sharing a bedroom with her brother and grandmother. But it didn’t tell colleges about who she is now, she said.

Her final essay tells how she came to embrace her natural hair. She wrote about going to a mostly white grade school where classmates made jokes about her afro. When her grandmother sent her back with braids or cornrows, they made fun of those too.

Over time, she ignored their insults and found beauty in the styles worn by women in her life. She now runs a business doing braids and other hairstyles in her neighborhood.

“I stopped seeing myself through the lens of the European traditional beauty standards and started seeing myself through the lens that I created,” Amofa wrote.

“Criticism will persist, but it loses its power when you know there’s a crown on your head!”

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