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44  STUDENTS FOR FAIR ADMISSIONS, INC. v. PRESIDENT 

AND FELLOWS OF HARVARD COLLEGE 
SOTOMAYOR, J., dissenting 

vantages” underrepresented minority students “at the ex-
pense of ” other students.  Ante, at 27. 

That  is  not  the  role  race  plays  in  holistic  admissions.
Consistent with the Court’s precedents, respondents’ holis-
tic review policies consider race in a very limited way.  Race 
is only one factor out of many.  That type of system allows
Harvard and UNC to assemble a diverse class on a multi-
tude of dimensions.  Respondents’ policies allow them to se-
lect students with various unique attributes, including tal-
ented athletes, artists, scientists, and musicians.  They also
allow  respondents  to  assemble  a  class  with  diverse  view-
points, including students who have different political ide-
ologies  and  academic  interests,  who  have  struggled  with 
different types of disabilities, who are from various socioec-
onomic backgrounds, who understand different ways of life
in  various  parts  of  the  country,  and—yes—students  who 
self-identify with various racial backgrounds and who can
offer different perspectives because of that identity.

That  type  of  multidimensional  system  benefits  all  stu-
dents.  In fact, racial groups that are not underrepresented 
tend to benefit disproportionately from such a system.  Har-
vard’s holistic system, for example, provides points to appli-
cants who qualify as “ALDC,” meaning “athletes, legacy ap-
plicants, applicants on the Dean’s Interest List [primarily 
relatives of donors], and children of faculty or staff.”  Har-
vard II, 980 F. 3d, at 171 (noting also that “SFFA does not
challenge the admission of this large group”).  ALDC appli-
cants  are  predominantly  white:  Around  67.8%  are  white, 
11.4% are Asian American, 6% are Black, and 5.6% are La-
tino.  Ibid.  By contrast, only 40.3% of non-ALDC applicants 
are white, 28.3% are Asian American, 11% are Black, and 
12.6% are Latino.  Ibid.  Although “ALDC applicants make
up less than 5% of applicants to Harvard,” they constitute
“around 30% of the applicants admitted each year.”  Ibid. 
Similarly, because of achievement gaps that result from en-
trenched racial inequality in K–12 education, see infra, at