This paper describes the college admission process through the conceptual lens of Dickason's (2001) phases of affirmative action. The first phase, obligatory affirmative action, describes the history of affirmative action and the impact on college admission. The second phase, voluntary affirmative action, describes University of West Florida's (FL) efforts to increase its minority enrollment and retention. The final phase, tempered affirmative action, explores percentage plans that have been implemented in universities in California, Texas and Florida to eliminate race as a criterion for admission. The goal is to provide some insight into the future of race-based admission and the implication for institutional efforts to provide diverse learning opportunities for students. (Contains 1 figure.)