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Page Number: 171.0

32  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

admissions officers may, but need not, consider a student’s
self-reported racial identity when assigning overall ratings. 
Id., at 166, 169, 180.  Even after so many layers of compet-
itive  review,  Harvard  typically  ends  up  with  about  2,000 
tentative admits, more students than the 1,600 or so that 
the  university  can  admit.  Id.,  at  170.  To  choose  among 
those highly qualified candidates, Harvard considers “plus
factors,” which can help “tip an applicant into Harvard’s ad-
mitted class.”  Id., at 170, 191.  To diversify its class, Har-
vard awards “tips” for a variety of reasons, including geo-
graphic  factors,  socioeconomic  status,  ethnicity,  and  race. 
Ibid. 

There is “no evidence of any mechanical use of tips.”  Id., 
at  180.  Consistent  with  the  Court’s  precedents,  Harvard
properly  “considers  race  as  part  of  a  holistic  review  pro-
cess,” “values all types of diversity,” “does not consider race
exclusively,” and “does not award a fixed amount of points
to applicants because of their race.”  Id., at 190.27  Indeed, 
Harvard’s admissions process is so competitive and the use
of race is so limited and flexible that, as “SFFA’s own ex-
pert’s  analysis”  showed,  “Harvard  rejects  more  than  two-
thirds of Hispanic applicants and slightly less than half of
all  African-American  applicants  who  are  among  the  top 
10% most academically promising applicants.”  Id., at 191. 
The courts below correctly rejected SFFA’s view that Har-
vard’s  use  of  race  is  unconstitutional  because  it  impacts 
overall Hispanic and Black student representation by 45%.
See  Brief  for  Petitioner  79.  That  45%  figure  shows  that 

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27 JUSTICE GORSUCH suggests that only “applicants of certain races may 
receive a ‘tip’ in their favor.”  Ante, at 9.  To the extent JUSTICE GORSUCH 
means  that  some  races  are  not  eligible  to  receive  a  tip  based  on  their
race, there is no evidence in the record to support this statement.  Har-
vard “does not explicitly prioritize any particular racial group over any
other and permits its admissions officers to evaluate the racial and eth-
nic identity of every student in the context of his or her background and
circumstances.”  Harvard I, 397 F. Supp. 3d 126, 190, n. 56 (Mass. 2019).