This work reviews race-based admission and its alternatives, as well as the benefits of diversity on college campuses. This entails an overview of the research regarding the effectiveness of class-based approaches to achieving diversity and evidence of the importance of establishing a critical mass of persons of color at predominately white institutions. The essay concludes with a discussion of the sociopolitical impacts these strategies currently hold in efforts to achieve diversity on campuses, their effects upon attainment for and life outcomes of the targeted populations, and the future of race-based approaches to higher education.