JOHN YANG: Colleges and college bound high school seniors are entering uncharted territory this fall, the first college application season in which schools are prohibited from considering race and ethnicity and making admissions decisions.

It's the result of June's landmark Supreme Court ruling that race conscious admissions are unconstitutional.

Admissions officials at selective schools have been anticipating this, and they've been thinking about it for a while.

But what about students and their families?

Sandy Baum is a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute's Center on Education, Data and Policy.

Sandy, first of all, let's put this in perspective.

How many students in schools does this really affect?

SANDY BAUM, Senior Fellow, Urban Institute: That's a really important question, because you would think from the discussion that everyone is affected.

That's not true.

Most schools accept virtually all of their applicants.

And so it's only the schools that are highly selective, where it really is going to make a difference at all.

And the other issue is that it's really at the margin.

So the biggest fear is that students will hesitate to apply if they think, I'll never get in now that there is no affirmative action.

And the most important thing is for students to apply and give institutions the opportunity to accept them because of their qualifications.

JOHN YANG: Well, high school juniors, so we're thinking about applying to one of these selective schools, who are trying to make themselves attractive applicants, should they be doing anything differently now?

SANDY BAUM: Well, they should be thinking about the fact that they need to submit applications that will make it very clear who they are, what their strengths are.

And of course, they do have the opportunity to talk about the way that race or other personal characteristics have affected their experiences.

They should maybe apply to more schools, more selective schools, if they're they think their chances of anyone have gone down.

But they should still apply to the schools that they think will be the best fit for them.

The schools are eager to maintain diverse student bodies.

JOHN YANG: And as you say, this puts restrictions on what the schools can do.

But it doesn't restrict in any way what the applicants can do.

So they can still in essays and identify their race or ethnic background.

SANDY BAUM: They can, but institutions will have to be very careful not to accept students because of their race.

So they're going to want to get some advice from their guidance counselors, and try to read about how institutions are approaching this new dilemma.

So yeah, I mean, the biggest fear is that students will be afraid to apply.

Institutions are going to be working hard to prevent that from happening.

And there will be some students who don't get in who might have gotten in because of affirmative action, but they will get into another school instead.

They certainly should not decide it's hopeless to go to college to a four year college to a selective institution.

JOHN YANG: State schools in California and Michigan have been dealing with this for a while now.

Because of state referendums that ban race conscious admissions to students who are applying now can they take any lessons from students who are successful applicants to the college's state colleges in California and Michigan?

SANDY BAUM: Well, we know that when California, for example, banned affirmative action, the share of black and Hispanic students on those campuses really did go down significantly at the beginning, but it has crept back up.

And I mean, I think that the lesson is that institutions are working hard to get those students and that, you know, we just have to really hope that they will find ways for example, they could consider socio economic background, so they can give preference to people who have struggled against financially disadvantaged circumstances.

So really, the lesson for students is just not to be scared off and to represent themselves accurately and to highlight their strengths.

And let me say also that at the same time, the financial aid system is changing, and it's going to get easier to apply for financial aid.

And students want to be thinking about that, at the same time that they're thinking about where and how to do the admission applications.

The application is going to be shorter, it's going to be simpler.

And it's going to be easier to import your tax information from the IRS so that you don't have to answer all of the difficult questions.

Most students will be eligible for a little more financial aid than was the case before.

That won't be true for all students, but it will be true for most students.

So fill out the federal application for student aid and any other application that your institution requests apply, apply, apply.

JOHN YANG: While we're on the topic of financial aid.

The average cost of attending a state school tuition room board books the whole schmeer is about $27,000 this year and it's $55,000 of private schools.

The average graduate is coming out with student debt of about $30,000.

Is this worth it is college worth it for every student?

SANDY BAUM: College is not for every student, but it is worth it.

For most students, it's certainly very worth it on average.

The average earnings for people who get bachelor's degrees compared to the average earnings for people who don't go to college, there's such a gap that in a year or two or three, you're going to make up that difference.

If you're not prepared to study in college, if you think there's a small chance that you'll actually graduate, maybe you should take some time to think about it.

Do your research, go to an institution where there's a reasonably high graduation rate, and compare your financial aid offers because most students get financial aid, they don't pay those high sticker prices.

JOHN YANG: Now, after this decision, the Supreme Court decision there are other factors in admissions that are being examined legacy admissions sort of favoring children of alumni.

Now they're also talking about early decision that the critics say it favors wealthy and well-connected students.

Are we going to see more changes in this process?

SANDY BAUM: I think we'll see changes, we'll see the process evolve.

One real problem is that in this process, people who come from advantaged backgrounds people whose parents went to college, people who went to strong high schools have all kinds of advantages.

They are likely to have higher test scores.

They are likely to have taken more rigorous high school curricula.

They are likely to have more help filling out their applications.

They have more time for extracurricular activities.

So we're never going to eliminate the advantages that students from more privileged backgrounds have.

But I think there is going to be increasing effort to try to compensate as much as possible for the struggles that we know that many students face.

JOHN YANG: Sandy Baum of the Urban Institute's Center on Education, Data and Policy.

Thank you very much.

SANDY BAUM: Thank you so much.