Mr. Richard Shaw Brought Diversity to Stanford

Parents Forum
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<p>Mr. Richard Shaw, Dean of Stanford Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid, in less than four year has brought significant diversity to the Stanford campus. According Stanford Common Data Set, the percent of White students have been reduced from 43.9% to 31.5% and the percent of Asian students from 23.8% to 20.5% during his tenure. He did it with a slight decrease in SAT median from 1460 to1435 (R&M).</p>

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<p>The median is meaningless.</p>

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<p>So roughly half of Stanford undergraduates are now black or Hispanic? I’m on the Stanford campus frequently, and it certainly doesn’t look like there are that many non-white, non-Asian students.</p>

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<p>Here are the numbers roughly:
3% American Indian/Alaskan Native
21% Asian/Pacific Islander
10% Black/Non-Hispanic
15% Hispanic
31% White/Non-Hispanic
7% Non-Resident Alien
13% Race/ethnicity unreported</p>

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<p>Hey, maybe this guy Shaw actually did something, but this looks like it could be a veritable cornucopia of statistics manipulation.</p>

<p>white + Asian percentage went from 68% to 52%, a decrease of 16%.
The percentage “race/ethnicity unreported” in 2009 is 13%.<br>
Is there an increase in the “race/ethnicity unreported” category and could this account for the decrease in white + Asian? Tokenadult has devoted a whole thread to the increase in students not marking race/ethnicity.</p>

<p>Further, the median only depends on the top 51% of the class, which means that the median won’t move an inch no matter what the statistics of the bottom 49% of the class are.</p>

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<p>I can’t really see any difference. Here are the percentages for Fall 2003 and Fall 2008:</p>

<p>



**2003 2008        Year**
6%  7%      Temporary Resident
10% 10%     Black, Non-Hispanic
2%  3%      American Indian or Alaskan Native
25% 23%     Asian or Pacific Islander
12% 12%     Hispanic
45% 45%     White (inc. unknown)

</p>

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<p>He did apparently manage to reduce the SATs, nonetheless.</p>

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<p>Interesteddad, your information is not the latest. Here is the latest that I can find:
[College</a> Search - Stanford University - The Farm - At a Glance](<a href=“College Search - BigFuture | College Board”>College Search - BigFuture | College Board)</p>

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<p>Interesteddad’s numbers and Professor101’s numbers are virtually the same - the major differences are where to attribute the unknowns.</p>

<p>I think it’s reaonsable to say that Richard Shaw has not increased diversity at Stanford, unless there have been significant changes in the percentage of Pell Grantees (which I doubt, I don’t currently have that data - do either of you?)</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>It most certainly is. It’s taken directly from the October 2008 enrollments for degree seeking undergrads listed on the Common Data Set, compared to the same data from October 2003.</p>

<p>The data you linked is for first year students only, which tends to overstate minority enrollment by masking typically lower graduation rates.</p>

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<p>" … the percent of White students have been reduced from 43.9% to 31.5% and the percent of Asian students from 23.8% to 20.5% during his tenure."</p>

<p>Great! Let’s keep reducing the percentages of those darned whites and Asians!</p>

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<p>

The race unknown category increased by 6%. The net decrease of White & Asian is 10% assuming that the unknowns are included in the White category.</p>

<p>

If the first year percentage increases every year, then it stands to reason that the overall enrollment percentage will increase too assuming that the graduation rate is constant. I think that the overall enrollment in the 2008 CDS didn’t reflect his contribution completely since he started at S in the fall of 2005.</p>

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<p>Does it matter, and if so, why?</p>

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<p>“Does it matter, and if so, why?”</p>

<p>Yes!</p>

<p>“Diversity” matters to:</p>

<p>1) The university, which now has cover against the oppressed minorities within its own faculty and against the shakedown artists of the diversity industry.</p>

<p>2) Students who are admitted under the cover of diversity if (and it’s a big if) they are otherwise not properly prepared for the rigors of an elite university. These students can be under tremendous academic pressure, but heck, as long as the university hits its diversity numbers and gets its ticket punched by the diversity industry, who cares?</p>

<p>3) White and Asian students who are adversely affected by the emphasis on diversity in admissions.</p>