US colleges and universities today intensively market themselves in order to compete for prospective students. One of the most widespread marketing tools used to attract students are admissions viewbooks, which are designed to provide potential students with favorable impressions of the many institutions to which they may apply. In this study, we explore how racial diversity is represented in undergraduate admissions viewbooks. Because viewbooks contribute to how prospective students and their families understand higher education and how they comprehend racial diversity in this context, careful examination of the messages contained in viewbooks is of great significance to a range of social justice and equity-related issues in higher education. Our findings, which stem from a critical visual and textual analysis of 20 viewbooks, suggest that viewbooks convey strong messages concerning racial identity that raise critical questions about the state of diversity, race relations, institutional priorities, and the commoditization of admissions in American higher education today.

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