Does considering race in college admissions discriminate against whites?
Opponents of considering race in admission say doing so discriminates against whites. Click to see full-sized. Forty-two percent of white students aged 18 to 24 were enrolled in college in 2013, compared to 34 percent of black and Hispanic students that age, according to the U.S. Department of Education.
Do Americans favor affirmative action for racial minorities?
It depends on how you ask the question. Sixty percent of adult Americans surveyed by Gallup in 2016 said they generally favor affirmative action programs for racial minorities.
Why did the University of California choose to prioritize racial preferences?
When the University of California argued that its preferences were justified by the need to "reduc [e] the historic deficit of traditionally disfavored minorities" in the academic world--to promote racial balance--Justice Powell dispatched that argument in one crisp paragraph:
Should Universities give admission preference to blacks?
If a university gives admission preference to blacks, some whites who would have been admitted but for that racial favoritism will not be admitted. We cannot learn who those persons are, but the unfairness to unidentifiable individuals who lose because of their race is nevertheless very great.
Does ethnicity affect college admissions?
Still, state schools consider a student's ethnic background, even though California schools tend to avoid using a student's ethnicity as a primary deciding factor for admission.
Do minorities have an advantage in college admissions?
Many American appear to think that Black students benefit from college admissions offices that want to increase diversity on predominantly white campuses. But a new survey shows that white applicants have a significant advantage over their Black peers.
What race is least likely to go to college?
Persons identifying as Hispanic or Latino, without regard to race, had the lowest educational attainment. The gap was the largest between foreign-born Asian Americans, over half (50.1%) of whom had a bachelor's degree or higher and foreign-born Hispanics, 9.8% of whom had a four-year college degree.
What ethnicity goes to college the most?
In 2016, the total college enrollment rate was higher for Asian young adults (58 percent) than for young adults who were of Two or more races (42 percent), White (42 percent), Hispanic (39 percent), Black (36 percent), Pacific Islander (21 percent), and American Indian/Alaska Native (19 percent).
What percentage of minorities go to college?
Black or African American students have increased among the student population 34.0% since 1976. 68.5% of students in this demographic attend public institutions. 68.3% of Black or African American students attend 4-year institutions.
How many states banned affirmative action?
Nine states in the United States have banned race-based affirmative action: California (1996), Washington (1998), Florida (1999), Michigan (2006), Nebraska (2008), Arizona (2010), New Hampshire (2012), Oklahoma (2012), and Idaho (2020).
What is the most educated ethnic group in America?
Upworthy: Black women are now America's most educated group. The number of postsecondary certificates below the baccalaureate level awarded to Hispanic students more than doubled (a 146 percent increase, from 78,500 to 193,000) between academic years 2000–01 and 2015–16.
What percent of America is White?
61.6%Overall, 235.4 million people reported White alone or in combination with another group. The White alone population accounted for 204.3 million people and 61.6% of all people living in the United States, compared with 223.6 million and 72.4% in 2010.
What percent of Americans have a college degree by race?
Among the other racial/ethnic groups, 35 percent of White adults, 34 percent of adults of Two or more races, 21 percent of Black adults, 18 percent of Pacific Islander adults, and 15 percent each of American Indian/Alaska Native and Hispanic adults had earned a bachelor's or higher degree.
What percentage of college students are non White?
In 2015–16, approximately 45 percent of all undergraduate students identified as being a race or ethnicity other than White, compared with 29.6 percent in 1995–96.
What percentage of US college students are Black?
Of the 16.6 million total undergraduate students enrolled in the Fall of 2019, Black students made up 2.1 million students of the undergraduate population (12.7%) but they were not equally represented at different institution types.
Is standardized test score a major or minor factor?
About two-thirds of Americans (67%) say this should be a major factor; 26% say it should be a minor factor. And while many colleges have stopped requiring standardized test scores as part of the application process, 47% of Americans say these scores should play a major role, while an additional 41% say they should play a minor role.
Should colleges consider race?
Most Americans say colleges should not consider race or ethnicity in admissions. As the debate over college admissions policies reignites, a new Pew Research Center survey finds that most Americans (73%) say colleges and universities should not consider race or ethnicity when making decisions about student admissions.
Why is it wrong to give favor to whites?
To give favor to males or to females, or to whites or to blacks or to persons of any color, is morally wrong because doing so is intrinsically unfair. Color, nationality, and sex are not attributes that entitle anyone to more (or less) of the good things in life, or to any special favor (or disfavor).
Who is the beneficiary of race preference?
The beneficiaries of race preference are a few members of the preferred group (if, in fact, they succeed in graduating from the college to which they have been preferentially admitted), and the newly emerged corps of administrators whose. livelihood is derived from the oversight and enforcement of preferences.
Why are affirmative action and preference confounded?
Preference and affirmative action are widely confounded in the public mind because race preferences were introduced (beginning about 1970) in the honorable name of affirmative action. What was to have been eliminated was given the name of what had been designed to elimina te it.
What is the difference between compensation for injury and preference by race?
When preference is given flatly by skin color or by national origin, the inevitable result is the award of advantages to some who deserve no advantage, and the imposition of burdens upon some who deserve no burden.
What is the outcome of preference?
In schools, playgrounds, and parks, in commerce and sports, in industrial employment, even in legislatures and courts, the outcome of preference is increasing racial tension and increasing self-segregation.
What does the guarantee of equal protection mean?
Recall Justice Powell's explicit invocation of that clause: "The guarantee of equal protection cannot mean one thing when applied to one individual and something else when applied to a person of another color. If both are not accorded the same protection, then it is not equal.". 17.
Which act of 1964 was the subject of race preferences?
Race preferences in admission fly in the face of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, whose Section 603 reads, in full: And race preferences fly in the face of the Equal Protection Clause. Justice Powell, in Bakke, put this eloquently:
What college took race out of the admissions equation?
One of those schools was Brown University. Christina Paxson, the college's president, said taking race out of the admissions equation would make it difficult for competitive schools to enroll a racially diverse class, she said. "It's sort of trying to get to an outcome with one hand tied behind your back," Paxson said.
What percentage of Democrats support affirmative action?
84 percent of Democrats (and Democratic leaners) view affirmative action positively, according to Pew. Nonwhite Americans are more likely to support affirmative action than white Americans, according to a 2016 report from the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank.
Is it unusual for Americans to support a policy in general but disagree when it comes to the specific application of that
It's not unusual for Americans to support a policy in general but disagree when it comes to the specific application of that policy, Newport said. Harvard's admissions process, for example, can be "hard for anybody to understand," he said.
Is Harvard a race sensitive school?
In a court filing, conservative advocates called Harvard's race-sensitive admissions process "racially and ethnically discriminatory.". But the the school's new president wrote that the process helps Harvard "achieve a diverse student body.".
Does Brown University have a holistic admissions process?
Brown University also uses a holistic admissions strategy. Paxson said it can be difficult for her admissions team to pick from a pool of applicants with strong grades, test scores, essays and recommendations. Adding in holistic admissions factors — like military service, hometown, first-generation status and race — allows Brown to create communities in which "you have people who are different from each other," Paxson said.
Why do one in four whites say the equally qualified black student would have a better chance of getting into college?
Why do one in four whites say the equally qualified black student would have a better chance of getting into college? That figure may reflect knowledge of past and present affirmative action programs used on college campuses. Designed in the 1960s to remedy the effects of discrimination by helping minorities gain entrance into college, black Americans clearly support affirmative action programs, while whites are more divided (see "Race, Ideology, and Support for Affirmative Action" in Related Items).
What percentage of whites believe in affirmative action?
The majority of whites (54%) tend to view affirmative action programs as giving preferential treatment to minorities in work and education, while the majority of blacks (65%) generally think that they mainly ensure access for minorities that they otherwise might not get.
What percentage of blacks say they have a better chance of being accepted?
In contrast, a solid majority of blacks (64%) say the white student would have a better chance of being accepted, while only 4% say the black student would have the better chance. Twenty-nine percent of blacks say chances are equal for both.
What are the factors that determine college admission?
Financial considerations aside, access to a college education depends on an intricate combination of factors including grades, college entrance test scores, class rank, course of study, quality of the high school attended, and extracurricular activities.
Is race a factor in deciding who is in or out?
Race can also be a factor -- though not an overriding factor -- in deciding who is in and who is out, according to a landmark 2003 Supreme Court decision involving the University of Michigan law school.
Addressing entrenched gaps
These startling gaps show that true racial equity in higher education means more than getting students to and through college; it also means providing equality in the programs of study that are accessible and welcoming to them.
Where students complete
There is stark inequality in where black and Hispanic students get their degrees and certificates. Given the racial differences in where students enroll, this is perhaps not surprising. Nevertheless, this gap is often overlooked.
What degrees students earn
In addition to understanding where students are earning their credentials, it is important to look at what they leave school prepared to do. What students major in is an important determinant of their future earnings and the diversity of the U.S. workforce across fields.
Recommendations
This analysis’ findings show that considerations of equity in higher education must go beyond where students enroll and whether they finish to examine what they study and what credential they earn.
Conclusion
Plenty more investigation is necessary. Institutions should also work to understand the different ways students of color might be discouraged from pursuing certain degrees. Varying tuition by major is one practice that has been shown to dissuade black and Hispanic students from pursuing certain courses of study.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Erica Blom and Prabhdeep Kehal, who provided very valuable comments on an earlier draft of this brief.
Endnotes
See, for example, Rachel Baker, Daniel Klasik, and Sean F.