Minority Enrollment at Universities

Parents Forum
1

<p>In a previous thread I presented data on the enrollment of minority students at liberal arts colleges. Below is similar data on 30 of the nation's research universities, both private and public. This is a work in progress so I'll add to it as I have the opportunity.</p>

<p>I have relied solely on information from current Common Data Set reports on the respective university websites. In a few cases (Harvard, Columbia) I've compiled data from online reports that used raw figures from the CDS. The percentage computations are my own, and I've chosen to round things out to the nearest tenth of a percent rather than to the nearest 1% as is done by UCAN (which doesn't report on public universities to the best of my knowledge).</p>

<p>Next to each school are three figures in parentheses that represent: 1) the percentage of students who are African-American (US Citizens); 2) All Minorities (African-American, Latino/a, Asian-American/Pacific Islander and Native American) and; 3) the percentage of international students. The figures are for the UNDERGRADUATE population only.</p>

<p>I have organized the list beginning with the university that has the largest percentage of African-American students to the least. This does not necessarily mean that Stanford, with 10% of their students being African-American, has the largest percentage of minority students overall. That distinction goes to the University of California, Berkeley, where 10,000 of the school's 24,000 undergrads are Asian-American.</p>

<p>Anyway, here are the first 30 universities:</p>

<p>Stanford (10.0 %, 47.9 %, 7.0 %)
SUNY Albany (9.1 %, 22.4 %, 1.9 %)
Yale (8.7 %, 31.9 %, 8.6 %)
Princeton (8.5 %, 29.4 %, 8.5 %)
Dartmouth (8.1 %, 32.4 %, 6.6 %)</p>

<p>Columbia (8.0 %, 34.1 %, 8.7 %)
Harvard (7.8 %, 31.1 %, 9.7 %)
William and Mary (7.2 %, 21.9 %, 2.4 %)
MIT (7.1 %, 46.1 %, 8.2 %)
Brown (6.8 %, 31.1 %, 7.0 %)</p>

<p>SUNY Buffalo (6.7 %, 19.8 %, 9.8 %)
Johns Hopkins University (6.4 %, 38.6 %, 5.2 %)
Northwestern (5.9 %, 29.7 %, 5.0 %)
Elon University (5.8 %, 9.7 %, 2.4 %)
Northeastern (5.5 %, 19.1 %, 4.8 %)</p>

<p>Cornell (5.3 %, 27.6 %, 7.6 %)
Case-Western Reserve (5.3 %, 24.3 %, 3.5 %)
Carnegie-Mellon (5.0 %, 34.0 %, 14.3 %)
SUNY Binghamton (5.0 %, 25.9 %, 7.3 %)
Catholic University (5.0 %, 14.3 %, 2.3 %)</p>

<p>University of Rochester (4.2 %, 15.6 %, 14.6 %)
RPI (4.1 %, 20.6 %, 2.2 %)
James Madison University (3.8 %, 11.2 %, 0.8 %)
Purdue (3.6 %, 12.5 %, 6.5 %)
California – Berkeley (3.4 %, 57.1 %, 3.2 %)</p>

<p>U of Mary Washington (3.2 %, 11.4 %, 0.5 %)
Lehigh (3.0 %, 13.0 %, 3.0 %)<br>
Brandeis (2.9 %, 13.7 %, 7.6 %)
Boston University (2.8 %, 23.0 %, 6.3 %)
WPI (2.6 %, 13.0 %, 7.5 %)</p>

2

<p>The 2000 Census data report that 75% of the U.S. is white, so apparently whites are the underrepresented race in many if not most of the top universities.</p>

3

<p>hudsonvalley, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has published a report on First Year enrollment of black students at top universities and colleges. It is interesting that some of the schools near the top of the list for first year enrollment don't appear anywhere on your list. Retention problem? Or perhaps significant strides over the last couple of years? (For example, Vanderbilt's freshman class last year was 10.3 percent black students, yet it does not appear on your list.)</p>

<p>For 2007: The</a> State of Black Student First-Year Enrollments at the Nation’s Highest-Ranked Colleges and Universities</p>

<p>From the report:
[quote]
The progress at Vanderbilt University over the past decade has been extraordinary. In 1995 only 4 percent of all freshmen at Vanderbilt were black. This year the figure is 10.3 percent. Vanderbilt ranks fourth in this year’s survey, the same position it occupied last year. Two years ago Vanderbilt ranked tenth.

[/quote]
</p>

4

<p>The University of Chicago's information is hard to find, but for the current quarter the figures would be (5.7%, 29.2%, 8.8%). The figures are pretty dynamic -- it reports that the current first-year class's numbers would be 8%, 39%, 10%; African-American and Hispanic enrollments have increased substantially year-to-year for the past four years at least.</p>

5

<p>JHS -- Thanks for the U of Chicago information. You are right. It is hard to find, which is why it was omitted. </p>

<p>midmo -- I am in the process of compiling information so it may be I haven't gotten to those universities yet. It is also possible they don't report their CDS info online, which is the only source I am using.</p>

6

<p>hudson:</p>

<p>altho not a top 30 Uni, Univ. of Califorina Irvine is over 50% non-white.</p>

7

<p>Here are 22 more universities to go along with the original list of 30:</p>

<p>Temple (16.8 %, 30.9 %, 2.7 %)
Towson (11.4 %, 18.1 %, 2.8 %)
University of Alabama (11.2 %, 14.7 %, 0.8 %)
University of North Carolina (10.9 %, 23.1 %, 1.3 %)
University of Florida (10.3 %, 31.9 %, 0.9 %)</p>

<p>Stanford (10.0 %, 47.9 %, 7.0 %)
SUNY Albany (9.1 %, 22.4 %, 1.9 %)
University of Virginia (9.0 %, 24.9 %, 4.6 %)
Yale (8.7 %, 31.9 %, 8.6 %)
Vanderbilt University (8.7 %, 22.1 %, 3.3 %)</p>

<p>University of Miami (8.5 %, 36.3 %, 6.1 %)
Princeton (8.5 %, 29.4 %, 8.5 %)
Dartmouth (8.1 %, 32.4 %, 6.6 %)
Columbia (8.0 %, 34.1 %, 8.7 %)
Harvard (7.8 %, 31.1 %, 9.7 %)</p>

<p>William and Mary (7.2 %, 21.9 %, 2.4 %)
MIT (7.1 %, 46.1 %, 8.2 %)
Brown (6.8 %, 31.1 %, 7.0 %)
SUNY Buffalo (6.7 %, 19.8 %, 9.8 %)
Wake Forest (6.6 %, 14.5 %, 1.1 %)</p>

<p>University of Michigan (6.3 %, 24.0 %, 4.7 %)
Johns Hopkins University (6.4 %, 38.6 %, 5.2 %)
University of Richmond (6.0 %, 12.9 %, 5.3 %)
Northwestern (5.9 %, 29.7 %, 5.0 %)
Elon University (5.8 %, 9.7 %, 2.4 %)</p>

<p>University of Chicago (5.7 %, 29.2 %, 8.8 %)
Northeastern (5.5 %, 19.1 %, 4.8 %)
University of Delaware (5.5 %, 15.1 %, 1.0 %)
Cornell (5.3 %, 27.6 %, 7.6 %)
Case-Western Reserve (5.3 %, 24.3 %, 3.5 %)</p>

<p>University of Connecticut (5.2 %, 18.0 %, 1.0 %)
Carnegie-Mellon (5.0 %, 34.0 %, 14.3 %)
SUNY Binghamton (5.0 %, 25.9 %, 7.3 %)
Catholic University (5.0 %, 14.3 %, 2.3 %)
University of Massachusetts (4.8 %, 16.5 %, 0.9 %)</p>

<p>University of Texas (4.7 %, 40.5 %, 4.0 %)
NYU (4.7 %, 29.6 %, 4.7 %)
Villanova (4.2 %, 16.8 %, 2.3 %)
University of Rochester (4.2 %, 15.6 %, 14.6 %)
Virginia Tech (4.2 %, 14.3 %, 1.8 %)</p>

<p>RPI (4.1 %, 20.6 %, 2.2 %)
James Madison University (3.8 %, 11.2 %, 0.8 %)
Purdue (3.6 %, 12.5 %, 6.5 %)
California – Berkeley (3.4 %, 57.1 %, 3.2 %)
UCLA (3.3 %, 56.9 %, 4.1 %)</p>

<p>U of Mary Washington (3.2 %, 11.4 %, 0.5 %)
Lehigh (3.0 %, 13.0 %, 3.0 %)
Brandeis (2.9 %, 13.7 %, 7.6 %)
Boston University (2.8 %, 23.0 %, 6.3 %)
WPI (2.6 %, 13.0 %, 7.5 %)</p>

<p>University of Wisconsin (2.5 %, 11.3 %, 3.2 %)
University of Vermont (1.1 %, 5.1 %, 0.5 %)</p>

8

<p>The UCs don't use race as a factor in their admissions which makes the racial demographics quite different than the general population.</p>

9

<p>
[quote]
The 2000 Census data report that 75% of the U.S. is white, so apparently whites are the underrepresented race in many if not most of the top universities.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>That figure includes the 6-10% of white hispanic students, who would identify as hispanic on college apps, in addition to any mixed background students who might identify as white on a census, but something else on an application. Taking also from that the fact that the majority of unreported race students will be white (by motivation in addition to sheer volume of applications), you end up with whites being represented only slightly less than their makeup in the population.</p>

<p>Example: Northwestern
reported: 56% white
Of Hispanic: 3% (Estimate Out of 7% total, probably on low side)
Unreported: 5% (Estimate out of 7%)</p>

<p>Total: 64%, Not much lower than Census considering Asians make up 18% of student body.</p>

10

<p>Somewhere on this site, someone recently reported UCLA @ 4%, with UCB still@3%. First time I've seen UCLA more then 3% and more than UCB in a really long time. Don't forget Duke which should be around 9%.</p>

11

<p>Shrinkrap:</p>

<p>This last year UCLA changed the way they evaluate the applications, going to a 'holistic' review process, which has resulted in a 100% increase in the number of AfAm applicants accepted. UCB had already been using this type of review process.</p>

12

<p>As in the other thread, the one-stop shopping source for data like these is the College Board College QuickFinder application. Scroll down on the main profile page for each college to see the ethnicity figures, which must come straight from Common Data Set standardized reporting (based in turn on United States Deparment of Education IPEDS mandatory reporting for data on this subject.) See, for example, </p>

<p>College</a> Search - University of California: Berkeley - Cal - At a Glance </p>

<p>College</a> Search - University of California: Los Angeles - UCLA - At a Glance </p>

<p>College</a> Search - Duke University - Duke - At a Glance </p>

<p>College</a> Search - University of Chicago - Chicago - At a Glance </p>

<p>Please note that most of these figures are about a month away from being updated for the new school year. Colleges are updating their Common Data Set data right now, this week. There may be just a few colleges that already have their new figures posted.</p>

13

<p>I am under the impression that change at UCLA was two admission cycles ago, and HS class of '07 was barely 3% at UCLA. My D was HS class '08 and UCLA was the only one of 15 schools she didn't get into. Including UCB She's URM with mid 50% UCLA stats and without being first gen or low income, didn't seem to be part of the "holism". Guess that's as it should be, but just sayin' for the record.So 10% increase in admission rate? Is that like from 7 percent to 14 percent of applicants? Or maybe you mean from 2 to 4 percent of the freshman class?</p>

14

<p>Tokenadult -- Those College Board figures are for first year students. My data is for ALL degree-seeking undergraduates.</p>

<p>In some cases the percentages between first years and the entire student body are similar. In other cases you can find a fairly significant divergence.</p>

15

<p>
[quote]
Those College Board figures are for first year students.

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Thanks for catching that detail. </p>

<p>Yes, sometimes those figures can go up or down quite a lot in one year. Presumably, figures based on the entire undergraduate enrollment move more slowly.</p>

16

<p>"The 2000 Census data report that 75% of the U.S. is white, so apparently whites are the underrepresented race in many if not most of the top universities.</p>

<p>^^^ And one Asian student recently described herself as ORM.</p>

17

<p>Demographics plays a role. It helps to have a solid black middle class population in a state, a lot depends on immigration/migration patterns historically. I suspect those blacks doing well in the south were not about to leave and endure northern winters, I'm sure historians and sociologists have studied this. I wonder what would happen to figures if family income were factored into various states' public intitutions' figures. All sorts of fun can be had with statistics.</p>

18

<p>Shrinkrap:</p>

<p>You're right - I think the change to holistic was for the fall 2007 applicants. The 100% increase was in the 'number' (not percentage) of AfAm students accepted between 2006 and 2007. I'm sure some of those decided to go elsewhere.
Campus</a> explains holistic review admissions process / UCLA Today</p>

<p>Regarding someone getting admitted to Cal but not UCLA or vice-versa as well as Cal or UCLA but not UCSD and vice-versa, it happens all the time. There are some top level students that get accepted to some of the HYPS that still get rejected from Cal or UCLA but there are some whose stats aren't as high as one might expect who do get accepted. Part of it is due to how they award points (extra points for low-income, single-parent family, first gen, etc.), part of it is whatever they conclude from the personal statement, and probably variance in the adcom individuals. </p>

<p>Congrats on your D's excellent acceptances.</p>

19

<p>Responding to #9, just for the sake of accuracy: The 2000 census reports 69% White (non-hispanic), 75% White alone, and 77% White mixed with other race.</p>

20

<p>"The 2000 Census data report that 75% of the U.S. is white, so apparently whites are the underrepresented race in many if not most of the top universities."</p>

<p>You have to look at the population data for college age; I bet it is less white than the population as a whole. And each region's demographics of course affects college apps in that region, except for the top schools probably, which draw nationwide. </p>

<p>The top schools do better I think because they can afford the best aid to attract the best and the brightest of the minority kids.</p>