MARTIN, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which, DAUGHTREY, MOORE, COLE, and CLAY, JJ., joined. MOORE, J. (pp. 752-758), delivered a separate concurring opinion, in which DAUGHTREY, COLE, and CLAY, JJ., joined. CLAY, J. (pp. 758-773), delivered a separate concurring opinion, in which DAUGHTREY, MOORE, and COLE, JJ., joined. BOGGS, J. (pp. 773-815), delivered a separate dissent, in which SILER, J., joined in part, and BATCHELDER, J., joined. SILER, J. (p. 815), BATCHELDER, J. (p. 815), and GILMAN, (pp. 815-818), also delivered separate dissenting opinions.
OPINION
BOYCE F. MARTIN, Jr., Chief Judge.
Lee Bollinger, Jeffrey Lehman, Dennis Shields, the Regents of the University of Michigan and the University of Michigan Law School appeal the district court’s determination that the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity in its admissions decisions violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.1 The Law School contends that its interest in achieving a diverse student body is compelling under Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978), and that its admissions policy is narrowly tailored to serve that interest. On appeal, the Law School is joined by the Intervenors: forty-one individuals and three student groups, United for Equality and Affirmative Action, the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action By Any Means Necessary, and Law Students for Affirmative Action. The Intervenors offer an additional justification for the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity — remedying past discrimination. Barbara Grutter, an unsuccessful applicant to the Law School, on behalf of herself and others similarly situated, urges us to affirm the district court’s decision. For the reasons set forth below, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court.2
I.
The Law School drafted its admissions policy to comply with the Supreme Court’s opinion in Bakke. Adopted by the full faculty in 1992, the policy states that the Law School’s “goal is to admit a group of [736]*736students who individually and collectively are among the most capable students applying to American law schools in a given year.” It further provides that the Law School “seekfs] a mix of students with varying backgrounds and experiences who will respect and learn from each other.” As part of the Law School’s policy of evaluating each applicant individually, its officials read each application and factor all of the accompanying information into their decision.
In identifying applicants who can be expected to succeed academically, the Law School evaluates a composite of the applicant’s Law School Admissions Test and undergraduate grade-point average. This composite can be visualized as a grid with standardized test scores on the horizontal axis and grade-point average on the vertical axis. Every combination of standardized test score and undergraduate grade-point average is shown in a cell on this grid. Each cell reports the number of applicants with that particular combination of numerical qualifications, as well as the number of offers of admission made to the applicants in that cell. Constructed in this manner, the highest combination of test scores and undergraduate grade-point averages are found in the grid’s upper right-hand corner. Thus, an applicant’s chance of being admitted generally increases as he or she moves into the grid’s upper right-hand corner. There is no combination of grades and test scores, however, below which an applicant will automatically be denied admission, or above which admission is guaranteed.
The Law School also considers “soft” variables like the enthusiasm of the recom-menders, the quality of the undergraduate institution, the quality of the applicant’s essay, residency, leadership and work experience, unique talents or interests, and the areas and difficulty of undergraduate course selection. After taking these additional “soft” variables into account, the Law School sometimes admits students with relatively low index scores. Its admissions policy describes two general varieties of students who may be admitted with such scores — (1) “students for whom [there is] good reason to be skeptical of an index score based prediction” (e.g., a student with a track record of poor standardized test performance, but who has an outstanding academic record) and (2) students who “may help achieve that diversity which has the potential to enrich everyone’s education and thus make a law school class stronger than the sum of its parts.”
The Law School’s admissions policy explains that “[t]here are many possible bases for diversity admissions.” For example, the policy states that particular weight might be given to “an Olympic gold medal, a Ph.D. in physics, the attainment of age 50 in a class that otherwise lacked anyone over 30, or the experience of having been a Vietnamese boat person.” The policy also offers three examples of actual diversity admissions. One student was born in Bangladesh, graduated from Harvard with a 2.67 grade-point average, received “outstanding references” from his professors, had an “exceptional record of extracurricular activity,” and had Law School Admission Test scores at the 46th percentile and 52nd percentile. Another was an Argentinian single mother with extensive business experience, who graduated summa cum laude from the University of Cincinnati, who was fluent in four languages, and scored at the 52nd percentile on the Law School Admission Test. The third applicant had a 3.99 grade-point average from the University of Florida, a Law School Admission Test score at the 90th percentile, and as the daughter of Greek immigrants was “immersed in a significantly ethnic home life,” and fluent in three languages.
[737]*737Reflecting the Law School’s goal of enrolling a diverse class, its admissions policy describes “a commitment to racial and ethnic diversity with special reference to the inclusion of students from groups which have been historically discriminated against, like African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans, who without this commitment might not be represented in our student body in meaningful numbers.” Students from such racial and ethnic groups “are particularly likely to have experiences and perspectives of special importance to our mission.” Professor Richard Lempert, the chair of the faculty committee that drafted the admissions policy, explained that the Law School’s commitment to such diversity was not intended as a remedy for past discrimination, but as a means of including students who may bring a different perspective to the Law School.
In considering race and ethnicity, the Law School does not set aside or reserve seats for under-represented minority students. As Dean Jeffrey Lehman testified: “We do not have a portion of the class that is set aside for a critical mass of under-represented minority students.” This testimony was echoed by Dennis Shields, the Law School’s former admissions director, and Erica Munzel, the current director of admissions, both of whom testified that the Law School does not strive to admit a particular percentage of under-represented minority students. The Law School does, however, consider the number of under-represented minority students, and ultimately seeks to enroll a meaningful number, or a “critical mass,” of under-represented minority students. According to Director Munzel, “critical mass” is a number sufficient to enable under-represented minority students to contribute to classroom dialogue without feeling isolated. Similarly, Dean Lehman equated “critical mass” with sufficient numbers to ensure under-represented minority students do not feel isolated or like spokespersons for their race, and do not feel uncomfortable discussing issues freely based on their personal experiences. Professor Lempert and Kent Syverud, the current dean of Vanderbilt Law School and a former Michigan Law School professor, offered similar definitions of “critical mass.” The Law School’s witnesses also testified that “critical mass” was not a set number or percentage. Director Munzel stated that there is no number or percentage, or range of numbers or percentages, that constitute a “critical mass.” Likewise, Dean Lehman stated that “critical mass” could not be fixed in terms of number or percentage.
Both the Law School and the unsuccessful applicants presented expert testimony regarding the Law School’s use of race in admissions decisions. Analyzing grids of the Law School’s admissions data from 1995-2000, the unsuccessful applicants’ statistical expert testified that the relative odds of acceptance for Native American, African-American, Mexican-American and Puerto Rican applicants were many times greater than for Caucasian applicants and concluded that members of these groups were “given an extremely large allowance for admission.”
According to the Law School’s statistical expert, eliminating race as a factor in the admissions process would dramatically lower minority admissions. He predicted, for example, that if the Law School could not consider race, under-represented minority students would have constituted only 4% of the entering class in 2000, instead of the actual enrollment figure of 14.5%. Citing the experience of the University of California at Berkeley after the passage of Proposition 209, Dean Lehman echoed these predictions, testifying that he feared under-represented minority enroll[738]*738ment would drop to “token” levels if race and ethnicity could not be considered.
II.
This Court reviews de novo the district court’s finding that the Law School’s efforts to achieve a diverse student body through the consideration of race and ethnic origin is unconstitutional and violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Johnson v. Econ. Dev. Corp., 241 F.3d 501, 509 (6th Cir.2001); see also Women’s Med. Prof. Corp. v. Voinovich, 130 F.3d 187, 192 (6th Cir.1997) (“[A]n appellate court is to conduct an independent review of the record when constitutional facts are at issue.”). To survive constitutional review, the Law School’s consideration of race must (1) serve a compelling state interest and (2) be narrowly tailored to achieve that interest. See Adarand v. Peña, 515 U.S. 200, 227, 115 S.Ct. 2097, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995).3
A.
To determine whether the Law School’s interest in achieving a diverse student body is compelling, we turn to Bakke. In Bakke, a fragmented Court determined that the Medical School of the University of California at Davis, which justified its race-conscious admissions program, in part, as necessary to achieve a diverse student body, could not be permanently enjoined from considering its applicants’ race because “the State has a substantial interest that legitimately may be served by a properly devised admissions program involving the competitive consideration of race and ethnic origin.” Id. at 320, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Two distinct opinions support Bakke’s judgment on this issue: Justice Powell’s opinion announcing the judgment of the Court, id. at 269-324, 98 S.Ct. 2733, and Justice Brennan’s opinion concurring in the judgment in part and dissenting in part, in which Justices White, Marshall, and Blackmun joined, id. at 324-79, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Applying intermediate scrutiny, the Brennan concurrence found Davis could constitutionally justify its consideration of race as an effort to remedy the effects of societal discrimination. Id. at 362, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Applying strict scrutiny, Justice Powell found “the attainment of a diverse student body ... clearly is a constitutionally permissible goal for an institution of higher education.” Id. at 311-312, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Justice Powell recognized that a diverse student body promotes an atmosphere of “speculation, experiment and creation” that is “essential to the quality of higher education.” Id. at 312, 98 S.Ct. 2733 (quoting Sweezy v. New Hampshire, 354 U.S. 234, 263, 77 S.Ct. 1203, 1 L.Ed.2d 1311 (1957) (Frankfurter, J. concurring)). Moreover, he noted that, by enriching students’ education with a variety of perspectives, experiences, and ideas, a university with a diverse student body helps equip its students to be productive members of society. Bakke, 438 U.S. at 313, 98 S.Ct. 2733 (“[I]t is not too much to say that the ‘nation’s future depends upon leaders trained through wide exposure’ to the ideas and mores of students as diverse as this Nation of many peoples.”) (quoting Keyishian v. Board of Regents, 385 U.S. 589, 603, 87 S.Ct. 675, 17 L.Ed.2d 629 [739]*739(1967)). Accordingly, he concluded “the interest of diversity is compelling in the context of a university’s admission program.” Id. at 314, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Justice Powell’s recognition of the compelling nature of the state’s interest in a diverse student body was not limited to undergraduate admissions: “[E]ven at the graduate level, our tradition and experience lend support to the view that the contribution of diversity is substantial.” Id. Quoting Sweatt v. Painter, 339 U.S. 629, 634, 70 S.Ct. 848, 94 L.Ed. 1114 (1950), he observed: “The law school, the proving ground for legal learning and practice, cannot be effective in isolation from the individuals and institutions with which the law interacts.” Bakke, 438 U.S. at 314, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
The district court did not dispute the merits of student body diversity. Rather, it acknowledged “[t]he evidence defendants submitted ... demonstrated that the educational atmosphere at the law school is improved by the presence of students who represent the greatest possible variety of backgrounds and viewpoints.” Grutter v. Bollinger, 137 F.Supp.2d 821, 849 (E.D.Mich.2001). Nevertheless, it held that achieving a diverse student body is not a compelling state interest because (1) it was not bound by Justice Powell’s conclusion in Bakke, and (2) achieving a diverse student body cannot be a compelling state interest because the Supreme Court has suggested that the only such interest is remedying specific instances of discrimination. See id. at 847-48.
Because Justice Powell’s opinion is binding on this court under Marks v. United States, 430 U.S. 188, 193, 97 S.Ct. 990, 51 L.Ed.2d 260 (1977), and because Bakke remains the law until the Supreme Court instructs otherwise, we reject the district court’s conclusion and find that the Law School has a compelling interest in achieving a diverse student body.4
1.
“When a fragmented Court decides a case and no single rationale explaining the result enjoys the assent of five Justices, the holding of the Court may be viewed as that position taken by those Members who concurred in the judgments on the narrowest grounds.” Marks, 430 U.S. at 193, 97 S.Ct. 990 (citation and internal punctuation omitted). In Marks, the Court interpreted its fragmented decision in Memoirs v. Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413, 86 S.Ct. 975, 16 L.Ed.2d 1 (1966), reversing the Massachusetts Supreme Court’s holding that a book depicting a prostitute’s life was suppressible obscenity. Three distinct rationales supported Memoirs ’s judgment, each representing a different view as to the scope of First Amendment protection afforded sexually explicit expression: (1) Justices Brennan and Fortas and the Chief Justice found the book was not suppressible obscenity because it was not “utterly without redeeming social value,” see id. at 419, 86 S.Ct. 975; (2) Justice Stewart found the book was not suppressible obscenity because it was not hardcore pornography, see id. at 421, 86 S.Ct. 975; and (3) Justices Black and Douglas did not reach the issue of whether the book was suppressible obscenity because they believed the First Amendment provides an absolute shield against government regulation of expression, see id. at 421, 424-28, 86 S.Ct. 975 (opinions of Black, J. and Douglas, J.). See also Marks, 430 U.S. at 194, 97 S.Ct. 990. The Marks Court determined that the Brennan plurality opinion, which provided the most [740]*740limited First Amendment protection, “constituted the holding of the [Memoirs ] Court and provided the governing standards” because it was the narrowest rationale for the Memoirs judgment.5 Id. at 193-94, 97 S.Ct. 990.
The district court declined to apply the Marks analysis to Bakke because Justice Powell’s rationale was not “subsumed” in that of the Brennan concurrence. See Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 847 (“There is simply no overlap between the two rationales”). Accordingly, it found that “Justice Powell’s discussion of the diversity rationale is not among the governing standards to be gleaned from Bakke.” Id.
The Mdr/csCourt's treatment of the divergent Memoirsrationales, however, demonstrates that the rationales supporting the Court’s judgment need not overlap on essential points in order to provide a holding that binds lower courts. Indeed, if the Justices agreed on essential points, the Mar&sanalysis would be unnecessary. Cf. Alexander v. Sandoval, 532 U.S. 275, 282, 121 S.Ct. 1511, 149 L.Ed.2d 517 (2001) (citing discrete portions of the opinions of Justice Powell and the Brennan concurrence for the proposition that the Bakke Court determined Title Vi’s coverage is coextensive with that of the Equal Protection Clause).
The Marks Court adopted the “utterly without redeeming social value” test as the Memoirs holding even though, by rejecting the possibility of suppression, Justices [741]*741Black and Douglas rejected the possibility of any test for identifying suppressible obscenity. In contrast to Justices Black and Douglas in Memoirs, the Brennan concurrence did not assert that Davis’s admissions program was wholly insulated from review. In fact, the Brennan concurrence agreed with Justice Powell that Davis’s admissions program was subject to heightened scrutiny, see Bakke, 438 U.S. at 359, 98 S.Ct. 2733 (advocating intermediate scrutiny); it expressly disagreed only with his application of strict scrutiny. Because Bakke is, if anything, more susceptible to the Marks analysis than the case examined in Marks itself, we find the district court erred in failing to analyze Bakke under Marks.
The Bakke Court addressed the permissibility of racial classifications in academic admissions programs. Under the Brennan concurrence’s rationale, the more permissive intermediate scrutiny standard would apply to “benign” racial classifications. Id. Under Justice Powell’s rationale, strict scrutiny would apply to all racial classifications. Id. at 304-07, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Because the set of constitutionally permissible racial classifications under intermediate scrutiny by definition includes those classifications constitutionally permissible under strict scrutiny, Justice Powell’s rationale would permit the most limited consideration of race; therefore, it is Bakke’s narrowest rationale. Accordingly, Justice Powell’s opinion constitutes Bakke’s holding and provides the governing standard here.6 See Marks, 430 U.S. at 193-94, 97 S.Ct. 990; see also Triplett Grille, Inc. v. City of Akron, 40 F.3d 129, 134 (6th Cir.1994) (“While there is some awkwardness in attributing precedential value to an opinion of one Supreme Court [742]*742justice to which no justice adhered, it is the usual practice when that is the determinative opinion.”); Smith v. Univ. of Washington, 233 F.3d 1188, 1200 (9th Cir.2000).
Because this court is bound by Justice Powell’s Bakke opinion, we find that the Law School has a compelling state interest in achieving a diverse student body.
2.
Our determination that Justice Powell’s diversity conclusion binds this court also finds some support in the Brennan concurrence’s qualified approval of the Harvard plan in the first footnote of its opinion: “We also agree with Mr. Justice POWELL that a plan like the ‘Harvard’ plan ... is constitutional under our approach, at least so long as the use of race to achieve an integrated student body is necessitated by the lingering effects of past discrimination.” Bakke, 438 U.S. at 326 n. 1, 98 S.Ct. 2733 (Brennan, J., concurring) (citation omitted) (emphasis added). Under the Harvard plan, Harvard College justified its race-conscious admissions policy solely on the basis of its efforts to achieve a diverse student body. See id. at 316, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Harvard’s consideration . of race could not be constitutional if it did not further a constitutionally permissible goal; therefore, by indicating that the Harvard plan could be constitutional under its approach, the Brennan concurrence implicitly — but unequivocally — signaled its agreement with Justice Powell’s conclusion that achieving a diverse student body is a constitutionally permissible goal.7
Although there is no support — either within or without the footnote — for the contention that the Brennan concurrence believed that the desirability of an “integrated student body” turns on whether the consideration of race is necessary to achieve that integration, some courts have read the Harvard footnote’s qualifying language, “at least so long as the use of race to achieve an integrated student body is necessitated by the lingering effects of past discrimination,” to suggest that the Brennan concurrence implicitly rejected the goal of achieving student body diversity. See Hopwood v. Texas, 78 F.3d 932, 944 (5th Cir.1996).
It is a mistake, however, to read the qualifying language as a rejection of any rationale. “[A]t least so long as” simply does not mean “only if.” Moreover, the qualifying language modifies when race may be used: ‘at least so long as ... necessitated by the lingering effects of past discrimination.’ It does not modify [743]*743why.8 This court cannot ignore the distinction between a constitutionally permissible goal — ‘achieving an integrated student bod/ — and a constitutionally permissible use of race to achieve that goal — ‘so long as necessitated by the lingering effects of past discrimination.’ Therefore, we cannot read the Harvard footnote’s qualifying language to detract from the Brennan concurrence’s agreement with Justice Powell’s diversity conclusion.
3.
The Court’s subsequent characterization of Bakke further supports our determination that Justice Powell’s conclusion is binding. See Metro Broadcasting, Inc. v. FCC, 497 U.S. 547, 568, 110 S.Ct. 2997, 111 L.Ed.2d 445 (1990), overruled on other grounds, Adarand, 515 U.S. at 227, 115 S.Ct. 2097. In Metro Broadcasting, Justice Brennan, speaking for the Court in an opinion joined by Justices White, Black-mun, Marshall, and Stevens, cited Bakke for the proposition that “ ‘a diverse student body” contributing to a ‘robust exchange of ideas’ is a ‘constitutionally permissible goal’ on which race-conscious university admissions program may be predicated.” Metro Broadcasting, 497 U.S. at 568, 110 S.Ct. 2997 (quoting Bakke, 438 U.S. at 311-13, 98 S.Ct. 2733 (Opinion of Powell, J.)). Metro Broadcasting’s, insight into Bakke’s holding is persuasive authority, which this court may not ignore. See Wright v. Morris, 111 F.3d 414, 419 (6th Cir.1997).
4.
Relying on Adarand and City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 493, 109 S.Ct. 706, 102 L.Ed.2d 854 (1989), the district court found that “racial classifications are unconstitutional unless they are intended to remedy carefully documented effects of past discrimination” and therefore concluded that the Law School’s interest in achieving a diverse student body “is not a compelling state interest because it is not a remedy for past discrimination.” See Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 849. Because the Supreme Court alone retains the ability to overrule its decisions, we reject the district court’s conclusion.
In Bakke, the Supreme Court determined that Davis — an institution that did not purport to justify its race-conscious admissions program as necessary to remedy specific past discrimination — could consider its applicants’ race. See Bakke, 438 U.S. at 320, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Thus, if the only constitutionally permissible reason to consider race is remedying specific past discrimination, Bakke’s judgment is no longer good law. In other words, adopting the district court’s conclusion that the Law School could only justify race-conscious admissions decisions as a remedy for specific past discrimination would necessitate a finding that the Supreme Court has implicitly overruled Bakke.
The Supreme Court, however, has explicitly prohibited just such a finding. See Agostini v. Felton, 521 U.S. 203, 237, 117 S.Ct. 1997, 138 L.Ed.2d 391 (1997). Rather, “[i]f a precedent of [the] Court has direct application in a case, yet appears to rest on reasons rejected in some other line of decisions, the Court of Appeals should follow the case which directly controls, [744]*744leaving to [the Supreme] Court the prerogative of overruling its own decisions.” Id. (quoting Rodriguez de Quijas v. Shearson/Am. Express, Inc., 490 U.S. 477, 484, 109 S.Ct. 1917, 104 L.Ed.2d 526 (1989)).
Moreover, given that (1) Bakke’s judgment suggests that remedying specific past discrimination cannot be the only constitutional justification for a race-conscious admissions program, and (2) institutions of higher education have been relying on Bakke for more than twenty years, see, e.g., Kenneth L. Karst & Harold W. Horowitz, The Bakke Opinions and Equal Protection Doctrine, 14 Harv. C.R.-C.L. L.Rev. 7, 7 (1979) (noting that Bakke provides a “how-to-do-it manual for the admission of minority applicants to professional schools”), we are unwilling to infer an intent to overrule Bakke — implicitly or otherwise — into the Court’s Adarand decision. See, e.g., Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 855, 112 S.Ct. 2791, 120 L.Ed.2d 674 (1992) (noting that the Court must consider “the cost of a rule’s repudiation as it would fall on those who have relied reasonably on the rule’s continued application” and suggesting that stare decisis precludes overruling a decision that cannot be overruled “without serious inequity to those who have relied upon it or significant damage to the stability of the society governed by it”); see also Dickerson v. United States, 530 U.S. 428, 443, 120 S.Ct. 2326, 147 L.Ed.2d 405 (2000).
B.
Although he found that achieving a diverse student body was a compelling interest, Justice Powell declared Davis’s admissions system unconstitutional because it was not narrowly tailored. Bakke, 438 U.S. at 319-20, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Davis operated a dual-track admissions system featuring a separate admissions committee and separate review process for minority applicants. Id. at 273-74, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Davis also established a quota for minority students — for example, in 1974, Davis reserved sixteen spots for minority applicants. Id. at 275, 98 S.Ct. 2733. According to Justice Powell, the critical defect in Davis’s program was that non-minority students were “totally excluded from a specific percentage of seats in an entering class.” Id. at 319, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
As an example of a constitutionally permissible admissions plan, Justice Powell advanced the Harvard plan in which race or ethnicity was deemed a “plus,” but did not insulate a minority applicant from comparison with other applicants. Id. at 316, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Under the Harvard plan, an institution could consider the race and ethnicity of applicants, but race and ethnicity alone were not the exclusive components of academic diversity. Id. at 317, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Thus, a black applicant could be “examined for his potential contribution to diversity without the factor of race being decisive when compared, for example, with ... an Italian-Ameriean if the latter is thought to exhibit qualities more likely to promote beneficial educational pluralism.” Id. According to Justice Powell, such qualities included “exceptional personal talents, unique work or service experience, leadership potential, maturity, demonstrated compassion, a history of overcoming disadvantage, ability to communicate with the poor, or other qualifications deemed important.” Id. The Harvard plan was “flexible enough to consider all pertinent elements of diversity in light of the particular qualifications of each applicant, and to place them on the same footing for consideration, although not necessarily according them the same weight.” Id. Race could “tip the balance” in an applicant’s favor, but so could other factors like “geographic origin or a life [745]*745spent on a farm.” Id. at 316, 98 S.Ct. 2738.
Above all, the Harvard plan “treat[ed] each applicant as an individual in the admissions process.” Id. at 318, 98 S.Ct. 2733. “The applicant who loses out on the last available seat to another candidate receiving a ‘plus’ on the basis of ethnic background will not have been foreclosed from all consideration for that seat simply because he was not the right color or had the wrong surname.” Id. Rather, his denied admission “would mean only that his combined qualifications, which may have included similar nonobjective factors, did not outweigh those of the other applicant.” Id.
In endorsing the Harvard plan, Justice Powell accepted that a university could not provide “a truly heterogen[e]ous environment ... without some attention to numbers.” Id. at 323, 98 S.Ct. 2733. As the Harvard plan detailed:
10 or 20 black students could not begin to bring to their classmates and to each other the variety of points of view, backgrounds and experiences of blacks in the United States. Their small numbers might also create a sense of isolation among the black students themselves and thus make it more difficult for them to develop and achieve their potential. Consequently, when making its decisions, the Committee on Admissions is aware that there is some relationship between numbers and achieving the benefits to be derived from a diverse student body, and between numbers and providing a reasonable environment for those students admitted. But that awareness does not mean that the Committee sets a minimum number of blacks or of people from west of the Mississippi who are to be admitted. It means only that in choosing among thousands of applicants who are not only ‘admissible’ academically but have other strong qualities, the Committee, with a number of criteria in mind, pays some attention to distribution among many types and categories of students.
Id. at 323-24, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Justice Powell rejected Justice Brennan’s contention that the distinction between a quota and a program that considered race and ethnicity as a potential “plus” was largely illusory. In Justice Powell’s view, a “plus” program — unlike a quota — lacked a “facial intent to discriminate.” Id. at 318, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Emphasizing that the fine distinction between a “plus” and quota system was both discernible and constitutionally significant, Justice Powell recalled Justice Frankfurter’s declaration that “‘[a] boundary line is none the worse for being narrow.’ ” Id.(quoting McLeod v. Dilworth, 322 U.S. 327, 329, 64 S.Ct. 1023, 88 L.Ed. 1304 (1944)). Justice Powell added that “a court would not assume that a university, professing to employ a facially nondiscriminatory admissions policy, would operate it as a cover for the functional equivalent of a quota system.” Id.; see also Johnson v. Tvansp. Agency, 480 U.S. 616, 656, 107 S.Ct. 1442, 94 L.E.2d 615 (1987) (O’Connor, J., concurring) (approving gender-conscious promotion where defendant “tried to look at the whole picture, the combination of [her] qualifications and [plaintiffs] qualifications, their test scores, their experience, their background, [and] affirmative action matters”).
In summary, Justice Powell’s opinion sets forth two guidelines regarding race-conscious admissions policies — (1) segregated, dual-track admissions systems utilizing quotas for under-represented minorities are unconstitutional; and (2) an admissions policy modeled on the Harvard plan, where race and ethnicity are considered a “plus,” does not offend the Equal [746]*746Protection Clause. Neither party questions the applicability of Justice Powell’s opinion regarding the narrowly tailored component of strict scrutiny, and it is our view that whether the Law School’s admissions policy passes constitutional muster turns on Justice Powell’s opinion.9
Drafted to comply with Bakke, the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity does not use quotas and closely tracks the Harvard plan. Race and ethnicity, along with a range of other factors, are potential “plus” factors in a particular applicant’s file, but they do not insulate an underrepresented minority applicant from competition or act ti> foreclose competition from non-minority applicants. As part of its policy of evaluating each applicant individually, the Law School’s officials read each application and factor all of the accompanying information into their decision. The Law School, like Harvard, attends to the numbers and distribution of under-represented minority applicants in an effort to ensure all of its students obtain the benefits of an academically diverse student body.
The record demonstrates that the Law School does not employ a quota for underrepresented minority students. The Law School’s witnesses, including the current and former admissions directors, all testified that the Law School does not reserve or set aside seats. For example, Dean Lehman testified: “We do not have a portion of the class that is set aside for a critical mass of under-represented minority students.” Moreover, the Law School operates a single admissions system; there is no separate track for minority applicants insulating them from comparison with non-minority applicants. Thus, the Law School’s admissions policy avoids the critical defect of the Davis admissions program.
The Law School’s competitive consideration of the race and ethnicity of African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans closely tracks the Harvard plan. In its admission policy, quoted in Bakke, Harvard details that race is a “factor in some admissions decisions” and that “the race of an applicant may tip the balance in his favor just as geographic origin or a life spent on a farm may tip the balance in other candidates’ cases.” Id. at 316, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Explaining the rationale behind this policy, Harvard highlighted that a “black student can usually bring something [to Harvard] that a white person cannot offer.” Id. The Law School considers an applicant’s race and ethnicity as a potential “plus” factor, or as Professor Lempert testified, as one element among other elements. Because race and ethnicity are a “plus,” they undoubtedly “tip the balance” in some applicants’ favor. Importantly, however, the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity does not operate to insulate any prospective student from competition with any other applicants. The Law School’s explanation for its consideration of race and ethnicity also mirrors the Harvard plan. According to the Law School, students from these groups “are particularly likely to have ex[747]*747periences and perspectives of special importance to [the Law School’s] mission.”
In seeking an academically diverse class, the record indicates that the Law School considers more than an applicant's race and ethnicity. In Bakke, Justice Powell stressed factors in addition to race and ethnicity that could contribute to academic diversity. See id. at 317, 98 S.Ct. 2733. He cited “exceptional personal talents, unique work or service experience, leadership potential, maturity, demonstrated compassion, a history of overcoming disadvantage, ability to communicate with the poor, or other qualifications deemed important.” Id. Mirroring Justice Powell’s discussion, the Law School’s admissions policy states that “[t]here are many possible bases for diversity admissions” and that in evaluating “soft” variables, it considers a range of factors such as leadership, work experience, unique talents or interests and the enthusiasm of an applicant’s letters of recommendation. Illustrating this range, the policy provides that particular weight might be given to “an Olympic gold medal, a Ph. D in physics, the attainment of age 50 in a class that otherwise lacked anyone over 30, or the experience of having been a Vietnamese boat person.”
The Law School’s pursuit of a “critical mass” of under-represented minority students also tracks the Harvard plan’s pursuit of a class with meaningful numbers of minority students. Explaining its attention to the numbers and distribution of minority students, Harvard emphasized that “10 or 20 black students could not begin to bring to their classmates and to each other the variety of points of view, backgrounds and experiences of blacks in the United States.” Id. at 323, 98 S.Ct. 2733. Moreover, “[t]heir small numbers might also create a sense of isolation among the black students themselves and thus make it more difficult for them to develop and achieve their potential.” Id. In defining the term “critical mass,” the Law School’s witnesses voiced virtually identical concerns. Director Munzel testified that “critical mass” is a number sufficient so that under-represented minority students can contribute to classroom dialogue and not feel isolated. Dean Lehman similarly equated “critical mass” with sufficient numbers to ensure under-represented minority students do not feel isolated or like spokespersons for their race, and feel comfortable discussing issues freely based on their personal experiences. Professor Lempert and Kent Syverud, the current dean of Vanderbilt Law School and a former Michigan Law School professor, offered similar explanations for the Law School’s pursuit of a “critical mass” of under-represented minority students. Essentially, both the Law School’s admission policy and the Harvard plan attend to the numbers of under-represented minority students to ensure that all students — minority and majority alike — will be able to enjoy the educational benefits of an academically diverse student body.
In light of the foregoing, we find that the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity is virtually indistinguishable from the Harvard plan Justice Powell approved in Bakke.
The unsuccessful applicants focus principally on the effects of the Law School’s policy, contending first that the Law School’s pursuit of a “critical mass” is the functional equivalent of a quota because it has resulted in a range of under-represented minority enrollment from 10%-17%. As a matter of definition, we are satisfied that the Law School’s “critical mass” is not the equivalent of a quota, because unlike Davis’s reservation of sixteen spots for [748]*748minority candidates, the Law School has no fixed goal or target. That the Law School’s pursuit of a “critical mass” has resulted in an approximate range of underrepresented minority enrollment does not transform “critical mass” into a quota. Because Bakke allows institutions of higher education to pay some attention to the numbers and distribution of under-represented minority students, see id. at 316-17, 98 S.Ct. 2733, over time, rebanee on Bakke will always produce some percentage range of minority enrollment. And that range will always have a bottom, which, of course, can be labeled the “minimum.” These results are the logical consequence of reliance on Bakke and establishment of an admissions policy, like the Harvard plan, that attends to the numbers and distribution of under-represented minority students. As such, they cannot serve as the basis for a charge that the Law School’s admissions policy is unconstitutional.
In analyzing actual admissions data, the dissent tries out a variation of the unsuccessful applicants’ contention and focuses only on the years 1995 through 1998. Dissenting Op. at 802 (Boggs, J.). Based on this grouping, the tightest four-year range available, the dissent concludes that the Law School seeks a “critical mass” of forty-four to forty-seven under-represented minorities per class, or “around 13.5%.” But as the dissent confesses in a footnote, the rest of the picture “deviate[s] a bit.” Id. at 802 n. 29. From 1987 to 1994, underrepresented minority enrollment was 12.3%, 13.6%, 14.3%, 13.4%, 19.1%, 19.8%, 14.5%, 20.1%, respectively. More importantly for present purposes, if we examine under-represented minority enrollment from 1993 until 1998, we see that the Law School’s under-represented minority enrollment ranged from 13.5% to 20.1%. In light of (1) the overwhelming testimony by Law School professors, admissions counselors and deans that the Law School does not employ a quota or otherwise reserve seats for under-represented minority applicants and (2) Justice Powell’s instruction that lower courts presume that academic institutions act in good faith in operating their “plus” programs, we simply cannot conclude that the Law School is using the “functional equivalent” of the Davis Medical School quota struck down in Bakke.
Relying on statistical evidence that under-represented minority students are admitted to the Law School with comparatively lower undergraduate grade-point averages and standardized test scores, the unsuccessful applicants also argue that the Law School considers race and ethnicity too much.10 Although they concede that all admitted students are qualified, the unsuccessful applicants contend that this disparity evidences an unconstitutional double standard for admission of underrepresented minority applicants and non-minority applicants. Upon inspection, however, the unsuccessful applicants’ statistical evidence demonstrates just what one would expect a plan like the Harvard plan to demonstrate — that race and ethnicity, as “plus” factors, play an important role in some admissions decisions. As the logical result of reliance on the Harvard plan, the unsuccessful applicants’ statistical evidence accordingly cannot sustain their contention that the Law School’s admissions policy is unconstitutional.
In advancing the Harvard plan, Justice Powell, unfortunately, did not define or discuss a permissible “plus” with respect [749]*749to the test scores and high school grades of under-represented minority Harvard applicants. And Harvard did not append a statistical comparison of minority and non-minority standardized test scores and/or grades to its admissions plan. Perhaps Harvard, in enrolling meaningful numbers of under-represented minority students, could select under-represented minority applicants with test scores or high school grades equivalent to their non-minority counterparts. And then again, perhaps Harvard grappled with some of the same admissions challenges as the Law School does today. Of course, such admissions statistics are neither in the record before us nor explicitly incorporated into Justice Powell’s opinion. Under these circumstances, we cannot hold that the Law School’s admissions program, which is virtually identical to the Harvard plan, would nevertheless fail Justice Powell’s test for constitutionality. Without some indication that Justice Powell specifically meant to limit the consideration of race or ethnicity — as a “plus,” to “tip the balance,” or as a “factor in some admissions decisions”— to instances where standardized test scores or high school grade-point averages were equivalent, we cannot adopt the limited definition of “plus” urged by the dissenting opinions. See Dissenting Op. at 798-800 (Boggs, J.); Dissenting Op. at 817 (Gilman, J.). And thus, we cannot conclude that the difference, on average, between the standardized test scores and/or undergraduate grades of qualified underrepresented minority students and qualified non-minority students renders the Law School’s admissions policy unconstitutional.
The district court relied on five factors in concluding that the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity was not narrowly tailored: (1) the Law School did not define “critical mass” with sufficient clarity; (2) the apparent lack of a time limit on the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity; (3) the admissions policy was “practically indistinguishable” from a quota system; (4) the Law School did not have a logical basis for considering the race and ethnicity of African-Americans, Native Americans and Puerto Ricans; (5) the Law School did not “investigate alternative means for increasing minority enrollment.” Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 850-52. As a initial matter, we have serious reservations regarding the district court’s consideration of five factors not found in Bakke, which, as we have stated, is the only Supreme Court case to directly address the consideration of race and ethnicity in academic admissions. Nevertheless, we are satisfied that the remaining factors relied on by the district court cannot sustain its holding.
Although not addressed in Bakke, subsequent Supreme Court opinions suggest consideration of race-neutral means is necessary to satisfy the narrowly tailored component of strict scrutiny. E.g., Cro-son, 488 U.S. at 507, 109 S.Ct. 706 (“In determining whether race-conscious remedies are appropriate, we look to several factors, including the efficacy of alternative remedies.”) (quoting United States v. Paradise, 480 U.S. 149, 171, 107 S.Ct. 1053, 94 L.Ed.2d 203 (1987)). Although the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity differs from the racial classifications at issue in Croson, and the context of higher education differs materially from the government contracting context, see, e.g., Hopwood, 78 F.3d at 965 n. 21 (Wiener, J., concurring) (“This unique context, first identified by Justice Powell, differs from the employment context, differs from the minority business set aside context, and differs from the re-districting context; it comprises only the public education context and implicates the uneasy marriage of [750]*750the First and Fourteenth Amendments.”), we nevertheless assess whether the Law School adequately considered race-neutral alternatives.
The district court acknowledged that the Law School introduced evidence indicating that under-represented minority students could not be enrolled in significant numbers without explicit consideration of race and ethnicity, but ruled that the Law School “fail[ed] to investigate alternative means for increasing minority enrollment.” 137 F.Supp.2d at 852. Upon examination, however, the record does indicate the Law School considered and'ultimately rejected various race-neutral alternatives to the consideration of race and ethnicity. Director Munzel, former Director Shields and Dean Lehman all testified that the Law School engaged in both pre- and pos-tadmission recruiting activities but that such activities were not enough to enroll a “critical mass” of under-represented minority students. Additionally, Professor Lempert testified regarding the lottery system, in which the Law School would lower its admissions standards, establish a numerical cut-off for “qualified” applicants, and then select randomly from among those applicants. According to Professor Lempert, such a system would admit greater numbers of non-minority students, but would not yield meaningful racial and ethnic diversity. Given the Law School’s consideration of race-neutral alternatives and the evidence that “under-represented minority students cannot be enrolled in significant numbers unless their race is explicitly considered in the admissions process,” we find that the Law School has adequately considered race-neutral alternatives.
The dissent proposes the Law School pursue “experiential diversity in a race-neutral manner” and characterizes such an approach as a superior alternative to the Law School’s current admissions system. Dissenting Op. at 806-807 (Boggs, J.). In effect, then, the dissent proposes that the Law School only focus on its race-neutral bases of diversity admissions. But as the dissent essentially acknowledges, this proposed alternative could not possibly achieve the same robust academic diversity currently sought and obtained by the Law School. The dissent says that it is “fully willing to stipulate that race does matter in American society, and that, on average, it matters more negatively for some, if not all, of the groups favored by the Law School than it does for some, if not all disfavored by the Law School.” Id. at 808. As to the impact of income, the dissent also offers to “stipulate that such impact or disadvantage is not strictly limited by present income or status.” Id. Yet the dissent nevertheless proposes that the Law School ignore the influence of race and ethnicity in pursuing a broad “pluralism of ideas and experiences” and, at the same time, reassures us that the pursuit of race-neutral diversity will still somehow produce the broadest “pluralism of ideas and experiences.” Id. at 807. In reality, by reducing the range of experiences the Law School can consider — namely, the experience of being an African-American, Hispanic or Native American in a society where race matters — the dissent proposes only a narrowed and inferior version of the academic diversity currently sought by the Law School.
Lastly, we note that we do not read Bakke and the Supreme Court’s subsequent decisions to require the Law School to choose between meaningful racial and ethnic diversity and academic selectivity. An institution of higher education must consider race-neutral alternatives, but it need not abandon its academic mission to achieve absolute racial and ethnic neutrality. Thus, in applying strict scrutiny we cannot ignore the educational judgment [751]*751and expertise of the Law School’s faculty and admissions personnel regarding the efficacy of race-neutral alternatives. We are ill-equipped to ascertain which race-neutral alternatives merit which degree of consideration or which alternatives will allow an institution such as the Law School to assemble both a highly qualified and richly diverse academic class. See Regents of the Univ. of Michigan v. Ewing, 474 U.S. 214, 226, 106 S.Ct. 507, 88 L.Ed.2d 523 (1985) (noting that a federal court is ill-suited “to evaluate the substance of the multitude of academic decisions that are made daily by faculty members of public education institutions — decisions that require an expert evaluation of cumulative information and are not readily adapted to the procedural tools of judicial or administrative decisionmaking.”) (citations and internal punctuation omitted). Mindful of both our constitutional obligations and our practical limitations, we also assume— along the lines suggested by Justice Powell — that the Law School acts in good faith in exercising its educational judgment and expertise. See Bakke, 438 U.S. at 318-19, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
We are not persuaded by the remaining factors that the district court relied on to invalidate the Law School’s admissions policy. First, the district court’s conclusion that the term “critical mass” is not sufficiently defined is at odds with the extensive record in this case, and the district court’s own characterization of “critical mass” as the functional equivalent of a quota. See Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 850. Numerous law school witnesses testified regarding the meaning of the term “critical mass.” For example, Dean Lehman equated “critical mass” with sufficient numbers such that under-represented minority students do not feel isolated or like spokespersons for their race, and do not feel uncomfortable discussing issues freely based on their personal experiences. We also emphasize the considerable tension between the district court’s findings that “critical mass” is both insufficiently defined and the functional equivalent of a quota. In any event, the district court’s apparent insistence that “critical mass” correspond with a more definite percentage is also fatally at odds with Bakke’s prohibition of fixed quotas. See Bakke, 438 U.S. at 319, 98 S.Ct. 2733.
Second, the district court’s statement that “there is no logical basis for the law school to have chosen the particular groups which receive special attention under the admissions policy,” Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 851-52, ignores both the Harvard plan and the Law School’s admissions policy. The Harvard plan specifically identified “blacks and Chícanos and other minority students” among the underrepresented groups that Harvard sought to enroll through its admissions policy. Bakke, 438 U.S. at 322, 98 S.Ct. 2733. The Law School’s similar reference to African-Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans accordingly cannot be faulted in this respect. Moreover, the policy itself supplies the logical basis for considering the race and ethnicity of these groups — without such consideration, they would probably not be represented in the Law School’s student body in “meaningful numbers.” As with the formulation and consideration of race-neutral alternatives, some degree of deference must be accorded to the educational judgment of the Law School in its determination of which groups to target. See Ewing, 474 U.S. at 226, 106 S.Ct. 507.
Finally, the district court’s determination that the Law School’s consideration of race and ethnicity lacks a definite stopping point also does not render the admissions policy unconstitutional. See Grutter, 137 F.Supp.2d at 851. Although the district [752]*752court correctly recited Adarand’s directive that a race-conscious remedial program must be limited so that it “will not last longer than the discriminatory effects it is designed to eliminate,” this directive does not neatly transfer to an institution of higher education’s nou-remedial consideration of race and ethnicity. Unlike a remedial interest, an interest in academic diversity does not have a self-contained stopping point. Indeed, an interest in academic diversity exists independently of a race-conscious admissions policy. Nevertheless, even if we were to apply a dura-tional constraint, we are satisfied that the Law School’s admissions policy sets appropriate limits on the competitive consideration of race and ethnicity. The record indicates that the Law School intends to consider race and ethnicity to achieve a diverse and robust student body only until it becomes possible to enroll a “critical mass” of under-represented minority students through race-neutral means. Thus, we are satisfied that the admissions policy is “sensit[ive] to the possibility that [it] might someday have satisfied its purpose.” See Associated Gen. Contractors of Ohio, Inc. v. Drabik, 214 F.3d 730, 737 (6th Cir.2000), cert. denied, 531 U.S. 1148, 121 S.Ct. 1089, 148 L.Ed.2d 963 (2001).
III.
For the foregoing reasons, we REVERSE the judgment of the district court and VACATE its injunction prohibiting the Law School from considering race and ethnicity in its admissions decisions.