One year after the abolition of affirmative action, students must find their way in the new college admissions situation

In June last year, the Supreme Court banned the use of affirmative action in college admissions.

The court ruled 6-3 that Harvard and the University of North Carolina’s admissions programs, which took race into account at various stages of the process, violated the equal treatment principle of the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

Students who apply to secondary schools after the court’s decision must now find their way in a new situation.

David Jiang’s high school graduating class is the first to apply to college since the Supreme Court’s decision. Jiang, 18, whose parents immigrated from China more than 20 years ago, said Harvard University was his dream school.

“I always aimed for the castle on the hill,” Jiang said. “I always wanted to go to Harvard.”

However, Harvard was involved in last year’s historic Supreme Court decision that changed college admissions policies and left uncertainty about the future of diversity on campus.

Admissions officers are no longer allowed to consider race when applying to a student, but students still have the option to include this information in their essays.

Jiang, who applied to Harvard early last year, said he decided to highlight his Chinese-American heritage in his application.

“It’s just a big part of my identity,” Jiang told “Nightline.” “If a school doesn’t want to accept me because I’m Asian American, there’s not much I can do about it, because that’s a part of me that I just can’t get rid of.”

Jiang attended Stuyvesant High School in New York City, one of the top public schools in the country. He said he scored 1560 on the SAT, played baritone saxophone in the NYC All-City Latin Jazz Ensemble and was team captain of the New York City Math Team.

Many of the more than a dozen universities to which Jiang applied rejected him or put him on the waitlist, including Harvard.

“I feel like I kind of disappointed (my parents) when I didn’t get into Harvard,” Jiang said. “But more importantly, I disappointed myself.”

Adam Mortara, the lead attorney who helped abolish affirmative action on behalf of the student organization Students for Fair Admissions, argued that Harvard had previously wrongfully held Asian-American applicants to higher standards.

“(Admissions disadvantages) were concentrated primarily on the so-called ‘personal evaluation,'” said Mortara. “Asian applicants received a lower personal evaluation than white, African-American or Hispanic applicants.”

According to Harvard student newspaper The Crimson, the so-called “personal assessment” could “include qualities such as humor, kindness, sensitivity and leadership.”

“I think the stereotype is that Asians are reserved, keep to themselves and only do math problems in their free time,” says Jiang.

Although Jiang does not believe race played a role in his rejection from Harvard, he believes implicit bias is difficult to eradicate.

“I think there is still this preconceived notion that Asians are this and that, and I felt like I had to prove that I was not the stereotypical Asian,” Jiang said.

Harvard has denied any bias or discrimination against Asian-American applicants in the admissions process. In a statement to ABC News, Harvard claims, among other things, that they have “taken several steps to comply with the Supreme Court ruling. These changes have been made to our recruitment, application and admissions processes.”

Yet in a post-affirmative action landscape, many students of color remain concerned about diversity on campus.

“There is a real danger that the percentage of black students at Harvard will decline over the years,” said Clyve Lawrence, a rising senior at Harvard. “I am concerned about a chilling effect that will cause black students who would otherwise have applied to now fear they will be disadvantaged because of this decision.”

Some students fear that their chances would be poor without positive discrimination.

“There are already so many barriers that disproportionately affect students of color,” said Joely Castillo, a transfer student at Brown University.

Castillo said she had a difficult childhood. After her father was arrested and imprisoned, her mother raised three girls alone. After high school, she immediately began working multiple jobs to support her family.

Nearly a decade later, Castillo enrolled in a community college, aiming for a four-year university degree, and tested her approach at the Kaplan Educational Foundation, a nonprofit that works with underserved community college students.

“I had to catch up with other applicants – students who had the opportunity to have support from tutors and families throughout the college application process,” Castillo said. “I, on the other hand, went into it kind of blind.”

Castillo eventually decided to write about her cultural background in her applications. With a 4.0 grade point average, Castillo was accepted to Princeton University, Smith College, Brown University, and other schools.

Castillo ultimately chose Brown University, but says she still worries about the diversity on campus.

“If we don’t continue to try to support students of color, our campuses will look like they did many years ago, with fewer students of color,” Castillo said.

According to a 2017 New York Times analysis, the number of Asians enrolled in top universities has risen sharply over a 35-year period thanks to affirmative action, while Hispanic and black students have largely remained disproportionately underrepresented.

A poll by the Gallup Center on Black Voices shows that nearly 70 percent of Americans support an end to affirmative action. Some who support its end say that the college admissions process will not be truly fair until schools stop giving preference to children of graduates, known as legacies.

“There is no reason why a child should be given preferential treatment in admission to an elite university just because his or her parents studied there,” said Mortara. “In contrast, for example, to the children of second-generation immigrant families whose parents did not have the opportunity to attend that university.”

The Department of Education launched a civil rights investigation into Harvard’s use of legacy admissions last year. Several elite universities have already eliminated legacy admissions, including Johns Hopkins University and Amherst College.

States such as Virginia and Maryland have also joined Colorado in banning the practice at their public universities. Other states, including California, New York and Massachusetts, are considering similar proposals. However, some graduates of color and those who were the first in their families to attend college oppose the ban.

“I think for us as American descendants of slaves, it’s a really big deal to be a legacy and a legacy for the families,” said Amanda Calhoun, a second-generation Yale graduate whose father also graduated from Yale.

Calhoun and her father said they believe affirmative action and related assistance programs have had a transformative effect.

“My concern would be that we would have less contact,” Calhoun said. “We’ll see fewer black students, fewer minority students feeling encouraged to apply to a university like Yale or other elite institutions.”

Yale is currently reviewing its preference for legacy applicants, but for now the policy remains in place.

Harvard told ABC News that 23.4% of its class of 2028 graduates will receive no financial aid from their parents and just over half will receive need-based aid, with the average parental contribution being $15,500.

In addition, Harvard says that 20.5 percent of the incoming class will consist of students who are the first in their family to graduate from a four-year college or equivalent.

“I know that sometimes college choice is random and admissions decisions don’t always turn out the way you want them to,” said Jiang, now in Duke University’s class of 2028. “I was happy to finally be accepted to a school I would like to attend.”

ABC News’ Rosa Kim and Jaclyn Skurie contributed to this report.