Understanding UNC-Chapel Hill's use of race in admissions

UNC's admissions process is extremely unscientific, making conclusions difficult

After eight years of legal wrangling, the case challenging UNC-Chapel Hill’s use of race as a factor in admissions was heard before the U.S. Supreme Court in late October.

Since then, most of the news coverage has been along the lines of "Conservative justices ready to strike down race-based admissions policies." This is a little misleading. The justices ask critical questions about both sides of the issue, which is their job.

Trying to read the tea leaves from a justice's questions to determine where they'll come down is mostly a useless exercise, and I won’t try to predict what will happen. I do, however, think it’s valuable to understand what UNC is doing, now that all the evidence is on the table. 

So: Is UNC discriminating against its applicants based on race? I spent a good deal of time over the past two weeks reading through the briefs filed by both sides and listening to the arguments presented, and it's a complicated question. There’s not really a clear answer.

UNC's admission…