Race-based admissions? Two Harvard Students debate ahead of Supreme Court decision

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Two Harvard University students on opposing sides offered their arguments on whether colleges should or should not consider race during the admissions process ahead of Monday’s Supreme Court case over affirmative action.

“Efforts like these make it more focused on race, and I think it should be focused more on merit and what they’re actually bringing to the college and a holistic view,” Alma Conway, a third-year student from Arizona, told Fox News. The Venezuelan American said she doesn’t want her ethnicity “to be the most important factor and for that to be the only reason I got into Harvard.”

WATCH TWO HARVARD STUDENTS SHARE ARGUMENTS ABOUT RACE-BASED ADMISSIONS:

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But Joseph Hernandez, a second-year student from California, disagreed.

“My experience with race in the classroom hasn’t been something that’s so easily disentangled with other things that typically measure opportunity,” he told Fox News. “I think it’s a factor that determines people’s opportunity and as such should be taken into account when we look at admissions.”

A TIMELINE OF SUPREME COURT CASES ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION IN COLLEGE ADMISSIONS

Oral arguments will be heard before the Supreme Court beginning Monday for Students for Fair Admissions Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard College. A ruling in the case, along with another involving the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, could overturn a previous decision and forbid colleges from using race-based affirmative action during the admissions process.

Harvard University is challenged by Students for Fair Admissions Inc. for discriminating against Asian-American students in the college admissions process. 
(Megan Myers/Fox News)

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“Affirmative action, in a way, is discriminating because you’re looking at the differences,” Conway told Fox News. “I think that if the court decides to remove it, it will be a step in the right direction.”

But Hernandez said: “There are some very clear issues in admissions, regardless of where you stand on affirmative action and while I will push people towards affirmative action, I also will say we need to evaluate these other issues.”

To view Conway and Hernandez’s entire discussion on affirmative action, click here.