Black Student Racialization in College Admissions Essays

Description of research project:   

This project examines how Black students’ narrative strategies vary by institutional type, gender, and pre-college experiences or how the relationships with—and the predisposition of—key admissions personnel shape the way that students describe their identities in college admissions essays. Specifically, this work investigates how Black undergraduate students enrolled at a historically and predominantly white institution (HPWI) and a historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) make sense of expectations to disclose trauma in admissions essays, and the sense-making of the admissions officers who encounter them. This project leverages insights from 57 in-depth semi-structured interviews with 37, Black undergraduate students and 20 admissions officers at private, four-year universities across the United States. Data for this project also include qualitative textual analysis of undergraduate participants’ personal statements. 

Description of work assignment:

Research assistants will develop their own independent research skills by contributing to the project’s literature review. Responsibilities may include identifying and summarizing literature on college admission, race and racialization, trauma narratives, and Black racial identity; preliminary coding of interview transcripts using an established codebook; and weekly meetings with supervising graduate student. This process will provide students with practice in locating and analyzing critical insights in data to contribute to a broader topic and project. All work will be conducted remotely.  

Supervising Faculty Member: Elizabeth Armstrong

Graduate Student: Aya Waller-Bey

Contact information: awallerb@umich.edu

Average hours of work per week: 9-12 hours a week

Range of credit hours students can earn: 3 credit hours

Number of positions available: 2