US colleges refashion student essay prompts after ban on affirmative action

FILE PHOTO: People embrace each other as demonstrators for and against the U.S. Supreme Court decision to strike down race-conscious student admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina confront each other, in Washington, U.S., June 29, 2023. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo

(Reuters) - In addition to writing about their favorite songs and why they want to go to college, students applying to Emory University in Atlanta this fall will get new essay prompts aimed at teasing out details about their cultural backgrounds.

The revised questions are among the changes at Emory and other highly selective colleges after the U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled that race-conscious admissions policies were unlawful, upending a longstanding practice for increasing minority enrollment in higher education.