College Comparison XVI: Ethnic Diversity

College Search & Selection
1

<p>In order to assist some in their college search process, I have prepared a series of threads that will compare colleges on a variety of measurements. In making these comparisons, I have created three broad groups (private national universities, public national universities and liberal arts colleges) and provide comparisons involving 117 colleges (national universities ranked in the USNWR Top 75 and LACs ranked in the USNWR Top 40). </p>

<p>Following is a comparison of ETHNIC DIVERSITY on each campus. The information is not sorted, but is presented in the order of each college’s USNWR overall ranking. Also, please note that I have not included data for Native Americans as their numbers are very small on the great majority of campuses. One notable exception is Dartmouth at 4%. </p>

<p>I hope that you enjoy the thread and find some helpful information. Good luck to all in your college search process!</p>

<p>Black , Asian , Hispanic , White , Private National University</p>

<p>8% , 17% , 7% , 58% , Harvard
8% , 15% , 8% , 58% , Princeton
9% , 14% , 9% , 59% , Yale
1% , 40% , 6% , 43% , Caltech
8% , 25% , 12% , 44% , MIT
10% , 23% , 12% , 45% , Stanford
8% , 18% , 6% , 58% , U Penn
8% , 16% , 9% , 57% , Columbia
6% , 14% , 9% , 63% , U Chicago
10% , 22% , 6% , 56% , Duke
8% , 14% , 7% , 61% , Dartmouth
5% , 18% , 7% , 64% , Northwestern
10% , 13% , 3% , 70% , Wash U
7% , 24% , 7% , 56% , Johns Hopkins
5% , 17% , 6% , 64% , Cornell
7% , 16% , 9% , 60% , Brown
10% , 20% , 4% , 58% , Emory
7% , 21% , 12% , 53% , Rice
9% , 7% , 6% , 75% , Vanderbilt
4% , 7% , 9% , 77% , Notre Dame
5% , 24% , 5% , 51% , Carnegie Mellon
7% , 10% , 7% , 73% , Georgetown
5% , 23% , 12% , 50% , USC
6% , 13% , 6% , 68% , Tufts
7% , 5% , 3% , 83% , Wake Forest
4% , 10% , 5% , 74% , Brandeis
4% , 20% , 8% , 62% , NYU
6% , 9% , 8% , 75% , Boston College
3% , 6% , 5% , 82% , Lehigh
4% , 10% , 4% , 75% , U Rochester
6% , 17% , 2% , 72% , Case Western
4% , 11% , 6% , 77% , Rensselaer
9% , 5% , 4% , 78% , Tulane
8% , 5% , 23% , 57% , U Miami
na , na , na , 93% , Yeshiva
7% , 10% , 7% , 70% , George Washington
3% , 14% , 7% , 69% , Boston University
7% , 9% , 10% , 66% , Pepperdine
7% , 9% , 6% , 71% , Syracuse
5% , 7% , 13% , 72% , Fordham
5% , 6% , 8% , 75% , SMU
3% , 6% , 5% , 77% , Worcester
0% , 4% , 4% , 88% , BYU</p>

<p>Black , Asian , Hispanic , White , State University</p>

<p>4% , 42% , 12% , 39% , UC BERKELEY
4% , 38% , 15% , 39% , UCLA
9% , 11% , 4% , 70% , U VIRGINIA
6% , 12% , 4% , 71% , U MICHIGAN
11% , 7% , 5% , 75% , U N CAROLINA
7% , 8% , 6% , 76% , WILLIAM & MARY
7% , 17% , 5% , 67% , GEORGIA TECH
2% , 45% , 12% , 37% , UC SAN DIEGO
7% , 13% , 7% , 66% , U ILLINOIS
3% , 6% , 4% , 83% , U WISCONSIN
3% , 40% , 13% , 41% , UC DAVIS
3% , 17% , 21% , 58% , UC S BARBARA
3% , 28% , 6% , 58% , U WASHINGTON
2% , 52% , 13% , 29% , UC IRVINE
4% , 6% , 4% , 83% , PENN STATE
10% , 8% , 15% , 66% , U FLORIDA
5% , 18% , 18% , 55% , U TEXAS
7% , 5% , 3% , 82% , OHIO STATE
13% , 15% , 6% , 64% , U MARYLAND
8% , 5% , 1% , 84% , U PITTSBURGH
7% , 7% , 2% , 83% , U GEORGIA
7% , 1% , 1% , 89% , CLEMSON
3% , 6% , 3% , 80% , PURDUE
3% , 5% , 14% , 77% , TEXAS A&M
5% , 10% , 2% , 79% , U MINNESOTA
9% , 25% , 9% , 56% , RUTGERS
5% , 8% , 5% , 80% , U CONNECTICUT
5% , 4% , 5% , 83% , U DELAWARE
5% , 4% , 2% , 84% , INDIANA U
8% , 5% , 3% , 78% , MICHIGAN ST
3% , 22% , 17% , 57% , UC S CRUZ
2% , 4% , 3% , 89% , U IOWA
4% , 8% , 3% , 84% , VIRGINIA TECH</p>

<p>Black , Asian , Hispanic , White , LAC</p>

<p>10% , 11% , 9% , 62% , Williams
10% , 10% , 9% , 63% , Amherst
9% , 17% , 11% , 55% , Swarthmore
3% , 9% , 6% , 70% , Middlebury
7% , 27% , 7% , 51% , Wellesley
6% , 12% , 9% , 70% , Bowdoin
8% , 14% , 11% , 62% , Pomona
5% , 10% , 5% , 73% , Carleton
6% , 4% , 4% , 82% , Davidson
8% , 10% , 9% , 69% , Haverford
4% , 12% , 11% , 67% , Claremont McK
5% , 10% , 7% , 72% , Vassar
7% , 10% , 8% , 67% , Wesleyan
5% , 8% , 6% , 69% , Grinnell
2% , 21% , 8% , 66% , Harvey Mudd
6% , 7% , 8% , 76% , US Military Acad
4% , 3% , 2% , 87% , W&L
7% , 13% , 7% , 66% , Smith
6% , 6% , 6% , 77% , Colgate
4% , 3% , 10% , 80% , US Naval Acad
4% , 7% , 5% , 78% , Hamilton
2% , 8% , 3% , 81% , Colby
6% , 7% , 5% , 75% , Oberlin
2% , 6% , 7% , 81% , Colorado College
4% , 6% , 4% , 81% , Bates
6% , 12% , 4% , 71% , Bryn Mawr
5% , 12% , 5% , 60% , Mt. Holyoke
4% , 13% , 8% , 74% , Scripps
4% , 9% , 4% , 71% , Macalester
5% , 16% , 9% , 67% , Barnard
3% , 6% , 4% , 84% , Bucknell
6% , 4% , 3% , 82% , U Richmond
4% , 5% , 3% , 84% , Kenyon
6% , 15% , 14% , 62% , Occidental
5% , 4% , 5% , 79% , Lafayette
4% , 6% , 6% , 82% , Holy Cross
4% , 3% , 3% , 88% , Sewanee
6% , 6% , 6% , 77% , Trinity
2% , 10% , 6% , 78% , Whitman
2% , 3% , 3% , 82% , Bard
7% , 3% , 2% , 86% , Furman</p>

2

<p>It is interesting that this thread has not gotten any attention, given all the posts on the Are Asians Discriminated Against? thread on the Admissions forum.</p>

<p>Some of the top private universities still have significantly lower percentages of students identifying as Asian. I don’t believe this has anything to do with discrimination against them in the admissions offices.</p>

3

<p>This is one of my biggest criticisms for Berkeley and UCLA. I think Asians are just too many at Berkeley and UCLA. It doesn’t look right!</p>

4

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<p>When a school is 40% white or 40% black, there’s obviously too many whites or blacks there.</p>

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<p>If Wikipedia is true, California’s population is:</p>

<p>58.8% White American
12.3% Asian American,
6.2% Black or African American,
0.7% American Indian,
3.3% mixed, and 17.3% of some other race.
35.9% are Hispanic or Latino (of any race).</p>

<p>Surprised that RML didn’t say anything about UC Irvine.</p>

6

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<p>What do you mean it “doesn’t look right”? California has done away with Affirmative Action. Are you suggesting that highly qualified Asians should be kept out of Berkeley and UCLA because they don’t look right? Does having the right look mean more to you than having the right academic qualifications?</p>

7

<p>There are far too many Asians in the Californian universities, I mean, I thought those areas were mostly Hispanic and Latino.</p>

8

<p>I think you should sort the list by percentage of students normally considered URM (black+hispanic). For extra credit, you could associate ave SAT scores, and perhaps deviation from the state propulation (for state schools) as a whole.</p>

9

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<p>What would be more accurate is that despite there being far more Hispanics and Latinos in California, far too few of them have the earned the grades and test scores needed to get into the top UCs. So the Asians have filled the gap.</p>

10

<p>Maybe the government needs to do something to make the Hispanics and Latinos more academic, because clearly there is a problem.</p>

<p>It seems too many of them are resorting to the gang like of California.</p>

11

<p>coureur,</p>

<p>Almost 60% of the population in California are White, and I think California has the most diverse population in terms of race. Basing on that alone, it is only fair for UC Berkeley, the flagship campus of the UC, to have the same proportion of White matriculants (enrolled students) on campus. I know many Asians are intellectually talented and thus are deserving to go to UC Berkeley as it is the best UC school, but the point is, when there is imbalance (in terms of proportions) in the student body at a particular campus or school, the whole learning environment in that school is distorted or changed. It will then lead to a deterioration of prestige. That is why there should be a regulation as to how many percentages are allocated to a particular race (as with regards to American students) and how many international students must make up the student body. I think HYPSM are doing that. Why can’t Berkeley do the same? If that continues, Berkeley will eventually loss its prestige, in my opinion. Look at Howard. I’m sure there are loads of talented students at Howard. But Howard’s lack of diversity makes it a less appealing school to go to.</p>

12

<p>RML:</p>

<p>The simple fact is that the “imbalance” exists at the HS level. A couple of years ago, UC published a report of UC-readiness by race/ethnicity (since buried). The results were something to the effect that ~33% of Asian HS grads are UC-qualified (gpa+test scores), which was 2.5 times that of white-non-Hispanics (~13%); the numbers for Hispanic and Black were less than 10%. Thus, it is is logical that Asians would be highly represented at our State Unis.</p>

13

<p>hawkette,
If I remember correctly, the source of this information classifies all students who refused to state their ethnicity as “White,” which probably does not reflect reality. Also, international students, which can account for up to 10% of the student body, are not included. Can you confirm? Thanks.</p>

14

<p>I am very aware about that, blue. My wife is Asian and she went to Berkeley despite that she has multiple acceptances from some very fine schools in the East Coast. She got into Columbia, Penn and Cornell but didn’t go, obviously. </p>

<p>My point is Berkeley must assign percentages for different races just like what HYPSM do. That is a way to protect its prestige from deterioration and become like a Howard in the future. That is also a way to maintain a good mix of racial diversity on campus, thus maintaining the learning environment on Berkeley campus. After all, California is just one of the States in the US, and the US is predominantly White. </p>

<p>If Berkeley can’t accept those dumb White from California, why won’t Berkeley get them from other States such as those from Washington, Texas, Nevada and the neighboring California States? </p>

<p>Another point is that some schools also need those smart Asians to boost their school statistics…so when those Berkeley rejects are distributed in other colleges… they would create a sort of a harmony and balance in the higher education system… lol</p>

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<p>Looks at the numbers in shock*</p>

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<p>The UC’s accept plenty from OOS, but few in their right mind would pay $50k (and climbing) to attend. UC finaid is poor even for instate. UCLA’s OOS is really low.</p>

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<p>Many schools outside of the top ~12 give all people of color an admissions boost, particularly rural LACs.</p>

17

<p>

Are you suggesting that the problem is that Berkeley might lose prestige and not that there is a prevailing attitude that race should affect prestige (aside from extreme examples like HBCUs and other target-specific colleges)?</p>

18

<p>What stands out to me is the very low % of black students at most of these schools considering the disproprtionate rants, threads, damnations, whining, etc. on CC about AA, reverse discrimmination, blah, blah blah… what a joke. </p>

<p>Btw, not trying to start another one here – just staing ONE of the things that jumps out to me when I look at these numbers.</p>

19

<p>^ I don’t see how you’re making any connection between the low % of black students and the disproportionate (disproportionate to what?) rants. If you’d like, we could discuss on the Race thread, but I understand if you don’t want to get into it. Just curious though; your post strikes me as odd.</p>

20

<p>

Berkeley and UCLA have nothing to do with that. When Californians voted to ban all forms of affirmative actions, UC admissions are required by law to be color blind. It would be against the law for Berkeley to “assign percentages for different races”.</p>