<p>*Blacks Who Applied for Early Admission in 2004 *</p>
<p>JBHE has surveyed the nation's highest-ranked colleges and universities to determine how the controversial issue of early admissions actually affects black access to higher education, particularly admissions to our most selective institutions. JBHE asked each of the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities and the 25 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges for this year's early admissions data. Some of the nation's highest-ranked institutions such as Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Amherst, Williams, Stanford, Dartmouth, Duke, and Columbia declined to participate in our survey. </p>
<p>We believe that the reason for this reluctance has to do with the fact that at most highly ranked colleges and universities there is only a very small trickle of black early decision applicants. Publication of this shortfall tends to hurt a school's reputation for its commitment to racial diversity. It is likely, although by no means certain, that universities and colleges missing from our statistics have a low percentage of black early applicants.</p>
<p>In addition, many top colleges are becoming increasingly aware that lots of their black admits are immigrant African/Caribbean or kids of such immigrants. They are trying to give more of a tip to African American nonimmigrants, whose families were hurt by the racism that led to affirmative action. In fact I would not be suprised if over hte next few years, the schools would start asking to further idenitfy (I believe that Amherst has already begun).</p>