Impact of affirmative action on college admissions?

I have heard a lot about affirmative action but I'm not fully sure of the role it plays in colleges. Can anyone explain its impact on the college admissions process or provide some insights on why it was implemented?

Affirmative action was a policy that aimed to increase educational and employment opportunities for historically underrepresented minorities. It was implemented with the intention of addressing the persistent discrimination and disadvantages faced by specific racial and ethnic groups in the United States. In the context of college admissions, affirmative action allowed colleges to consider an applicant's race and ethnicity, among other factors, to promote diversity on their campuses.

However, affirmative action was struck down by the Supreme Court in June 2023. Since then, colleges are no longer allowed to practice race-conscious admissions. Instead of directly considering an applicant's race or ethnicity, colleges now utilize a holistic approach to evaluate candidates. This means they assess a student's background, experiences, and the opportunities available to them and how these factors may have shaped the student's academic achievements. While colleges cannot now directly consider an applicant's race or ethnicity, they can still take into account how these factors might have impacted an individual's life experiences. For example, if a student writes about their personal experiences with race-related hardships in an application essay, that information can be considered by the admissions committee.