A report titled “Diversity and College Admission in 2003” conducted by the National Association for College Admission Counseling has found that race is not playing a large part in the college admissions process.
Roughly one-third of American colleges consider race or ethnicity as an ingredient in college admissions decisions. Such results suggest that despite the recent Supreme Court rulings on admission procedures at the University of Michigan’s law school, race might still play a small part among numerous factors in admission decisions.
While the study found that only a relatively small number of colleges evaluate race in the admissions process, the survey nonetheless showed that nearly 74 percent of colleges pledge a commitment to diversity in their mission statement. The same number of schools reported that they use a variety of recruiting tools, such as scholarships and college fairs, to attract a diverse student body.
The survey also found that universities look at race in a broad way, with consideration of such factors as religion and socioeconomic status. Of the institutions that reported factoring race into the admissions process, which were commonly highly selective institutions, 82 percent claimed that the race factor increased the number of minority students on campus.
The survey, which included 451 colleges and universities nationwide, was conducted last June before the Michigan ruling was finalized. Nearly 40 percent of the respondents were public universities, while the rest were private institutions.
Eleven percent of the respondents said the extent to which they could weigh a student’s race was restricted by law, and 21 percent use a “percentage plan,” which admits students based on a certain percentage of their graduating high school class.
Kent Barrett, news manager at UW Communications, said UW makes a commitment to maintaining a diverse campus climate.
“I can’t speak for any other colleges, but diversity on campus is and has always been a major goal of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and our admissions policies reflect that,” he said. “[UW-Madison]’s big goal is not only to admit a diverse student body, but to graduate a diverse student body.”
Clifton Conrad, a professor of higher education at the University of Wisconsin, said he is skeptical of the survey’s findings.
“[These findings] both underestimate and overestimate the role of diversity in colleges and universities today. [The results] underestimate in the sense that far beyond a third of colleges use race in admissions, either explicitly or implicitly, and [the results] overestimate in the sense of how serious the consideration of race really is,” he said.
“The problem is, many universities aren’t thinking beyond recruitment and percentages,” Conrad said. “This university, as well as other elite colleges, could be more hospitable and welcoming of diversity, from admissions all the way to higher learning.”
UW sophomore Jamie Silkey said she feels that race and ethnicity should not be a factor in admission policies.
“Diversity should be based on the different experiences and personalities of potential students, not based solely on color,” Silkey said, adding that he feels other factors guarantee campus diversity more strongly than race or ethnicity. “Socioeconomic status plays a greater role in making a person who they are than their color, because [a student] may have different opportunities at different levels.”
However, UW sophomore Alex Means said he feels that race and ethnicity play an important role in the each student’s UW education.
“When [UW] admits more racially and ethnically diverse students, everyone ultimately benefits. Ensuring these factors in each incoming student body just makes for a better education, inside and outside the classroom,” Means said. “That’s what I came here to learn.”
