Ann Arbor - Susan Clark said her high school achievements merited her enrollment in the University of Michigan - not her Colombian ethnicity.
"It definitely didn't hurt my cause any," the U-M senior said, laughing. "But I did well enough on my ACTs, and I was involved in everything in high school. I probably would have still gotten in."
Clark said the extra points she received on her application for being a racial ethnic minority didn't make a difference in her acceptance. But U-M's point system for admission will be challenged in two cases that will be brought before the U.S. Supreme Court on April 1.
In October, U-M filed a brief with the Supreme Court, urging it not to overturn the 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision that allowed the consideration of race in university admissions.
In recent weeks, President Bush denounced U-M's policy as unconstitutional because it assigns points to students based on race, socioeconomic background and university lineage.
"This truly is the most significant case since 1978, the Bakke decision," said Paulette Granberry Russell, senior adviser for diversity to MSU President M. Peter McPherson. "This will be the next landmark case on the use of race or the use of affirmative action in the admissions process, and I'm not the only person saying that."
U-M spokeswoman Julie Peterson said the university takes the cases very seriously.
"We're expecting the court to look at these issues very carefully," she said. "Everyone is watching it very closely. A really large number of universities would be affected."
Peterson said she is confident the court will see that U-M's admissions policy is not unconstitutional. "They'll find that Bakke is still the law of that land," she said.
Bush said the admissions policy is based on a racial quota, but U-M President Mary Sue Coleman disagrees and firmly stands by her school's system.
"We do not have, and have never had, quotas or numerical targets in either the undergraduate or law school admissions programs," Coleman said in a statement last month. "Academic qualifications are the overwhelming consideration for admission to both programs."
Granberry Russell said MSU's admissions process differs greatly from U-M's.
"At MSU we do not assign numerical ratings on any of the factors we take into consideration," she said. "We look at each individual student based on a number of considerations."
Pamela Horne, MSU's director of admissions and scholarships, agreed that although MSU does take race and other factors into consideration, academics take a higher precedence over anything.
"The majority of admissions made are based on academic credentials," she said. "It depends on the entire package, that's why we take a holistic view. Each student brings more to the table."
Horne said if a student is clearly admissible by academics alone, the group of 18 admissions counselors reviewing undergraduate applications won't take the other factors into consideration.
"It has achieved extraordinary success at MSU," she said.
Before she took her position at MSU in August, she was U-M's Office of Undergraduate Admissions assistant director, and said comparing the two admissions processes is like comparing apples and oranges.
"Every university has a distinct mission and its admissions policies and practices need to be reflective of that mission," she said. "To expect them to all be the same is not appropriate."
Horne said both universities visit high schools so they know the students throughout the entire application process.
"All the info in the file is taken into consideration," Horne said.
Political science senior Adnoris Torres said MSU's admissions policy is fair and successful in increasing diversity.
"I actually got to work with the people in admissions and I saw how hard they are working to make MSU more diverse," he said. "Diversity itself is a plus in any institution."
U-M senior Ebonie Byndon said many students don't understand U-M's policy, and that race is one of many factors students receive points for.
"I kind of feel like no one is in a place to say how they got in to U of M. To target minority students and to say they got here because of that isn't fair."
Although she's unsure of how much the system helped her achieve admission into the school, Byndon is in favor of it.
"If it helped me, then great," she said.
But U-M sophomore Lindsay Kokoczka said it's an unfair disadvantage to white students who don't receive the extra 20 points minorities receive.
"It's 20 vs. zero," she said. "That's equal to getting a perfect ACTs."
Torres said he doesn't think Bush should criticize U-M's policy, since he himself was helped into college by his father's alumnus status - a factor to which U-M also assigns points.
"He himself is someone who has gained from affirmative action in some way," he said. "I don't see how he can go against something that benefited him directly."
