Imagine you were a black or Hispanic applicant who did not want to be given a racial/ethnic preference when applying to Harvard. Or you were an Asian American applicant who feared that your Asian background would be a hindrance. The obvious thing to do, beyond lying on your application, would be to leave the race and ethnicity questions on the Common Application blank. I have even seen an admission consultant suggest that if someone leaves those questions blank, admissions officers would treat your application as if you were somewhere in between white and Asian.

It turns out, though, that according to the plaintiffs’ statement of undisputed material facts filed in August 2018, with citations to the record, Harvard did not accept “undisclosed” for race as an answer, at least for applicants who piqued its interest: