Legal Commentary

Blacks ?Overrepresented? At Columbia ... And Other Interesting Admissions Data

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education reports that blacks make up 14.5% of this year?s freshman class at Columbia. Since according to the U.S. Census blacks make up only 12.9% of the U.S. population (as of 2009), they are clearly ?overrepresented? (in the language of the preferentialists) there. Is Columbia doing anything to correct this imbalance, and the necessarily corresponding "underrepresentation" of other groups?

Columbia, like nearly all the Ivies, reveals how many blacks applied and how many enrolled, but it does not release the number who were offered admission, so its black admission rate is unclear. Brown, which does release that data, has a black admission rate of 14.1%, compared to an overall admission rate of 9.3% (but since the overall rate includes blacks, the admission rate for white and Asian applicants is obviously lower).

Similarly, the overall admission rate at Tufts was 24.5% for this year?s freshman class, but 38% for black applicants. There is also a wide gap between the 41% admission rate for blacks at the University of Virginia and the 30% for all students (including blacks).

The old American ideal that everyone should be treated ?without regard? to race seems to be dead on arrival on American campuses.

Full post as published by Discriminations on November 12, 2010 (boomark / email).