Even With Affirmative Action, Blacks and Hispanics Are More Underrepresented at Top Colleges Than 35 Years Ago<br />By JEREMY ASHKENAS, HAEYOUN PARK and ADAM PEARCE AUG. 24, 2017<br />How much more or less each group is represented among freshmen at top colleges relative to the U. S. population<br />Even after decades of affirmative action, black and Hispanic students are more underrepresented at the nation’s top colleges<br />and universities than they were 35 years ago, according to a New York Times analysis.<br />“A cascading set of obstacles all seem to contribute to a diminished representation of minority students in highly selective colleges.”<br />Black students make up 9 percent of the freshmen at Ivy League schools but 15 percent of college-age Americans, roughly the same gap as in 1980.<br />Blacks and Hispanics have gained ground at less selective colleges and universities<br />but not at the highly selective institutions, said Terry Hartle, a senior vice president at the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,700 colleges and universities.<br />Blacks and Hispanics remain underrepresented at other top universities, even as the share<br />of white students at many of these schools has dropped, in some cases below 50 percent.<br />The number of Hispanic and black freshmen on the University of California campuses declined immediately after California’s affirmative action<br />ban took effect, especially at the most sought-after campuses, said Stephen Handel, associate vice president for undergraduate admissions.<br />For example, the share of white freshmen at Rice University in Houston, which was exclusively<br />white until the mid-1960s, declined to 42 percent in 2015 from 87 percent in 1980.
