In June of 2023 affirmative action was abolished on university admissions across the United States. This resulted from the court case known as Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard University which enforced that universities cannot uphold affirmative action for the sole reason of increasing diversity. Despite the decision made by the Supreme Court, there are still alternative avenues for promoting diversity in universities (NAICU 2023). In the past, affirmative action has received numerous complaints, but also has benefited some groups of minorities. For example, some individuals argue that qualifications come before any measure of diversity, and that student qualification should determine if they are admitted to a university rather than their skin color (Sacks and Thiel 1996). However other studies found that affirmative action has benefitted the enrollment rates of American Indian/Alaska Native individuals as it increased by 7% (Garcia 2023). Despite the numerous opinions on affirmative action and the ongoing debate regarding the Supreme Court's decision, I wanted to see the direct impact that the abolishment has on college applications this year. As a result this led me to create my research question: How has the factor of race in 2023-2024 college application essays differ in private, public, and ivy universities as a result of affirmative action being abolished? To answer this I will be collecting 2023 college application forms from different regions across the United States and analyzing the presence of race in each university's essay questions.