Race-Based and Legacy Admissions

 Drew DeSilver at Pew:

In general, consideration of race and ethnicity is more common among schools with the lowest admission rates.

In the Center’s analysis of selective schools with publicly available CDS data, all 24 schools that admit fewer than 10% of applicants say they consider race and ethnicity when deciding whom to admit, although only one rated it as an important factor. And among the 48 schools that admit between 10% and 30% of applicants, all but seven consider race and ethnicity in admissions, with five rating it as an important factor.

But among the 51 schools that admit between 30% and half of all applicants, just over half (26, or 51%) consider race and ethnicity, and only four call it an important factor. Nearly half of those schools (25, or 49%) say they don’t consider race and ethnicity at all.

Among the colleges in our study group, the average admissions rate is lower among schools that consider race and ethnicity than among those that don’t (21.7% vs. 37.4%).

Also, consideration of race and ethnicity is more common for private colleges and universities, at least among the institutions we studied. All but 10 of the 92 private colleges and universities we examined (89%) considered race and ethnicity in deciding whom to admit, with 10 of those ranking it as an important factor.

But among the 31 public schools, only nine (29%) considered race and ethnicity at all, and none rated it as an important factor. (One partial explanation: Nine of the 22 public schools that don’t consider race and ethnicity in admissions are in California, where voters banned the practice in a 1996 ballot initiative.)

Nick Anderson at WP:

The Post reviewed the latest available answers for more than 140 prominent colleges and universities. Nearly all said course rigor and academic GPA were “important” or “very important.” Fewer than half put that much emphasis on test scores, with a majority stating instead that scores were “considered.”

More than 100 said race was considered or important — answers the court ruling will presumably change.

More than 100 also said they consider alumni-applicant relationships. Among them are Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the schools that defended race-conscious admissions before the Supreme Court. Oberlin College in Ohio called alumni relationships important.