The Greater Columbus Conference Center, including a sculpture called “As We Are,” hosted the 2025 NACAC conference.

Johanna Alonso/Inside Higher Ed

COLUMBUS, Ohio—Long have college admissions professionals bemoaned the public’s lack of understanding of how admissions decisions get made.

But that disconnect appears even wider during the second Trump administration. The president and the Republican Party have launched a relentless campaign for what they call merit-based admissions and against any aspect of the holistic admissions process they’ve deemed a “proxy” for race.

The question of whether admissions professionals can continue do their jobs under those circumstances was a constant undercurrent of the 2025 National Association for College Admission Counseling conference last week.

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