For so long as she remembers, Dolly Ramos hoped to have “the college experience,” she mentioned, and in the future grow to be a nurse. But her largest impediment wasn’t competing for a spot on the college of her alternative — it was attending and affording faculty in any respect.

The Supreme Court’s decision striking down affirmative action will very doubtless have highly effective penalties for elite faculty admissions, doubtlessly limiting the pool of Black and Hispanic college students on the most selective universities and affecting the variety of future leaders in enterprise, authorities and past.

But the impact of race-conscious admissions was all the time restricted to a comparatively small variety of college students. For the overwhelming majority, these faculties will not be an possibility — academically or financially.

Many head straight into the work drive after highschool or attend much less selective universities that don’t weigh race and ethnicity in admissions. At least a third of all undergraduate college students — together with half of Hispanic undergraduates — attend neighborhood faculties, which generally permit open enrollment.

“Somewhere it switched from ‘I want to be in school’ to ‘I just want to survive,’” mentioned Ms. Ramos, 25, who not too long ago completed her nursing diploma. To get there, she cobbled collectively credit from a number of faculties in New York State, and at occasions lived in a youth shelter and slept on the ground of a professor’s workplace.

At Memorial Pathway Academy, a highschool for at-risk college students and new immigrants in Garland, Texas, greater than 80 p.c of scholars get a job after commencement. Nationally, practically 40 p.c of highschool graduates don’t instantly enroll in faculty.

“This is the unseen group,” mentioned Josh Tovar, the principal. “Everyone sees the kid that is No. 1 ranked with 110 G.P.A. going to M.I.T. No one sees my boy that doesn’t have parents — that lives with Grandma, that came to me at 17, with five credits, and graduates.”

Fewer than 200 selective universities are thought to apply race-conscious admissions, conferring levels on about 10,000 to fifteen,000 college students every year who may not in any other case have been accepted, in line with a tough estimate by Sean Reardon, a sociologist at Stanford University. That represents about 2 p.c of all Black, Hispanic or Native American college students in four-year faculties.

The affirmative motion determination might nonetheless have broader ripple results. Some specialists fear it’s going to ship a message to Black and Hispanic college students that they aren’t wished on faculty campuses, or push them to extra troubled faculties, like for-profit institutions. It might additionally result in a rollback of teams and packages that middle on race.

Yet, for a lot of college students, the most important boundaries are sensible: making use of to, paying for and finishing faculty.

“I was extremely lost and extremely scared,” mentioned Tysheem Sanders, 24, who’s the primary in his household to go to school. He recalled the overwhelming second an adviser instructed him to decide on between “a subsidized loan, unsubsidized loan or a little bit of both.”

“I was like, ‘I’m not prepared for this,’” mentioned Mr. Sanders, who’s finding out on the Borough of Manhattan Community College and hopes to grow to be a highschool steerage counselor.

College enrollment has been on the decline for greater than a decade, partly due to rising prices.

Many states cut funding to public colleges in response to the Great Recession, and faculties in flip raised tuition. The worth has typically risen faster for lower-income students than these from higher-income backgrounds.

At the identical time, monetary support has not stored up. The federal Pell Grant for low-income college students, for instance, as soon as lined the vast majority of school prices; right now, it meets solely about a quarter.

Another Supreme Court ruling, rejecting a plan by the Biden administration to forgive some pupil debt for thousands and thousands of Americans, might additional discourage faculty attendance.

For many college students, household obligations are additionally a complicating issue.

Dominic Cherry, 22, mentioned he turned down a spot on the University of Nevada, Las Vegas as a result of he couldn’t afford tuition. Other choices have been too removed from his grandparents who helped elevate him.

So after highschool, he made a strategic determination: He received an workplace job at a building firm. He lives close to his grandparents, who’re of their 70s, and helps them with odd jobs, like fixing the rubbish disposal. He has signed up for neighborhood faculty — lined by federal support — with plans for a diploma in building administration.

“If I could do it over again,” he mentioned, “I would probably do it the way I did.”

Jessica Garcia, 19, of Garland, Texas, yearns to go to school and aspires to grow to be a detective. But it took practically all the things she needed to end highschool. Many mornings, she struggled to get to college, she mentioned, as a result of her household didn’t have a automotive. Standing onstage at commencement in May was a triumph: She is the primary in her household, she mentioned, to earn a highschool diploma.

For now, she has a job making sandwiches at Subway, and is saving up for her personal house.

“College is something that I really would like to experience,” she mentioned. “It’s my goal.”

Amy Harmon contributed reporting.