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1. I know of no school that formally “adds” points to one’s SAT. The meaning here is that typically the overall effect of racially-discriminatory admission rates would be as if the school gave members of specific groups a score boost that is, on average, a measurable number of additional points. In the past, there were schools that actually “gave” points thusly, but the courts struck down this practice, and these schools now conduct their approach to discrimination somewhat more subtly.

2. Any school that takes any sort of federal funding, or participates in any sort of federal program on behalf of students, including Pell grants, guaranteed student loans, etc., is legally obligated to refrain from racial or ethnic discrimination, whether the institution is public or private.

3. The Supreme Court has made a narrow exception permitting private institutions to engage in some racial and ethnic discrimination to further the goal of “diversity,” which private schools have represented before the court as being necessary to provide the education they claim to provide. However, the court rules that this was only permissible if there were no other way achieve the needed diversity.

4. The constitutionality of these practices has been recently challenged in a class action suit against Harvard et. al. by rejected Asian students. Plaintiffs counsel believe that they can demonstrate to the court that diversity can be achieved without resorting to racial and ethnic classification, which would make it difficult for these schools to continue the legal justification for their practice.

In the Parents Involved in Community Schools v. Seattle School District No. 1, (2007) case, Chief Justice Roberts summed it as follows:

“The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.”