<p>“Does a student in this situation have anything to lose by attending, given that his/her high school preparation is not as good as that of most of the other students at the Ivy League school, who had higher GPAs? How much of an impediment would that poorer preparation be?”</p>
<p>The Ivies and other top schools have the highest graduation rates in the country including for African Americans. At Harvard, the admissions dean has estimated that 90% of the applicants have the stats to be able to succeed (i.e. graduate) from Harvard. Such schools only accept students with the academic background, work ethic, and stats indicating that if accepted, they’d be able to graduate. This includes recruited athletes, legacies, wealthy donors’ kids, and URMs. </p>
<p>I don’t have the graduation stats for all such hooked students, though did find information that the Ivy League’s graduation rate for athletes is the highest in the country, and athletes graduate there at the same rate as nonathletes. <a href=“http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/whatisivy/index.asp[/url]”>http://www.ivyleaguesports.com/whatisivy/index.asp</a></p>
<p>However, the graduation rates of black students are the below, and in parentheses are the graduation rates of white students). Keep in mind that some students who didn’t graduate transferred to other universities including to other highly competitive ones…</p>
<p>95% Harvard (97%)
94% Amherst (96%), Princeton (98%), Wellesley (91%), Williams (97%)
92% Brown (96%), Yale (96%)</p>
<p>"Many academics and administrators will be surprised to hear that there are in fact a few selective colleges in the United States that report a higher graduation rate for blacks than for whites. Five of the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities actually have a higher graduation rate for black students than for white students. According to the latest statistics from Mount Holyoke College, Pomona College, Smith College, Wellesley College, and Macalester College, a black student on these campuses is more likely to complete the four-year course of study and receive a diploma than is a white student. JBHE has not been able to identify the reason for this anomaly at these five institutions, which is markedly inconsistent with nationwide statistics. But it is interesting to note that three of the five institutions are women’s colleges.</p>
<p>At some institutions the difference in black and white graduation rates is very small. Washington University in St. Louis has a 91 percent graduation rate for both blacks and whites. At Wake Forest University, Hamilton College, and Vanderbilt University, the white student graduation rate is only one percentage point higher than the rate for blacks. At Amherst College, Harvard University, Grinnell College, and Bryn Mawr College, the racial difference is only two percentage points.</p>
<p>At the Ivy League schools Harvard, Princeton, Columbia, Yale, and Brown, the black graduation rates are relatively high, and in all instances they are five percentage points or less below the graduation rate for white students. At Penn, Dartmouth, and Cornell, there is at least a seven percentage point racial gap in graduation rates."</p>
<p>[Black</a> Student College Graduation Rates Inch Higher But the Large Racial Gap Persists](<a href=“http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html]Black”>http://www.jbhe.com/preview/winter07preview.html)</p>