A recent poll conducted by the AssociatedPress-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research  found that a majority of respondents believe colleges should be allowed to take race into account in admissions decisions, even with the Supreme Court's current analysis of affirmative action.

According to the survey results, 63 percent of respondents said the Supreme Court should not prohibit colleges from considering race or ethnicity in admissions. While a majority advocated that institutions of higher education have this prerogative, 68 percent also expressed the opinion that race or ethnicity should not play a significant role in admissions decisions.

Instead, respondents believed that other factors, such as grades and scores on standardized tests, should have more importance in evaluating candidates. More than 60 percent of respondents considered high school grades to be a very important factor, while 30 percent considered them somewhat important. Nearly half of the respondents mentioned that standardized test scores should also be considered in admissions.

The survey also found that 13 percent of respondents believed that race or ethnicity should play a very or extremely important role in the admissions process, while 18 percent said it should be a somewhat important factor. The researchers noted that black and Latino adults were more likely to consider race and ethnicity as an important element in admissions decisions.

As for the role of gender in admissions, 9% of respondents considered it very important, 14% considered it somewhat important and 77% stated that it should not be relevant.

The Supreme Court is expected to hear cases challenging Harvard University's and the University of North Carolina's admissions systems. With a conservative majority on the court, there is a possibility that the use of race in admissions decisions could be reduced, according to what The Hill reported.

The survey was conducted among 1,680 adults between May 11 and 15 and has a margin of sampling error of 3.4 percentage points.