The Trump administration's executive order demanding that universities disclose the race, test scores and grade point averages of all applicants raises the stakes in a bitter battle that has already upended college admissions in recent years.

Colleges will face even more intense scrutiny over their admissions practices as the administration pushes them to rely more heavily on quantitative measures, which experts say could result in wealthier, less diverse student populations at elite universities.

For a century, higher education has been embroiled in a debate over who should be admitted into the country's most selective colleges. It is a fight that cuts to the core of the nation's most difficult ideological divides, over merit, equal opportunity and the legacy of racism.

On one side, co

See Full Page