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Consideration of race in private college admissions

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Consideration of race in college admissions
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BP-Initials-UPDATED.png On June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court reversed lower court decisions in Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President & Fellows of Harvard and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, effectively ending the use of affirmative action in college admissions. This article does not receive scheduled updates. If you have any questions or comments, contact us.


Affirmative action policies are adopted by governments and institutions in an effort to "improve opportunities for historically excluded groups in American society." Affirmative action admissions programs were undertaken by public and private universities alike beginning in the late 1960s and 1970s. Some universities initially established quotas in order to achieve a demographically diverse student body; these quotas were outlawed by the United States Supreme Court in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke in 1978. A common form of affirmative action in college admissions was that of racial preferences. A preference occurred when a group of applicants was more likely to be admitted than other applicants with similar or better qualifications due to other factors such as race or ethnicity. Preferences were sometimes extended towards women, athletes, and children of alumni.[1][2][3][4][5]

In Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. University of North Carolina, the Supreme Court effectively ended race-based considerations in college admissions in a June 29, 2023, decision. The ruling explicitly allowed national service academies to continue considering race as a factor in admissions for reasons of national security.[6][7]

The table below lists the 100 largest private colleges and universities in the United States as of December 2015; schools are ranked according to the size of their degree-seeking undergraduate student populations. Using data compiled by the College Board, this table indicates what role, if any, racial and ethnic considerations played in the admissions policies of these institutions.

Of the 100 largest private colleges and universities in the United States, 59 considered race and ethnicity as part of their admissions processes as of December 2015. The remaining 41 schools did not. Of the 59 schools that reported considering race in admissions, only five identified race as an important or very important factor.


Consideration of race at the 100 largest private colleges and universities in the U.S., 2015
State School Race/ethnicity is... Degree-seeking undergraduates Notes
Not considered Considered Important Very important N/A
Utah Western Governors University
{{{1}}}
 44,499 Open admissions
New York Excelsior College
{{{1}}}
 36,927 Open admissions
Utah Brigham Young University
{{{1}}}
 27,163
New York New York University
{{{1}}}
 24,539
California University of Southern California
{{{1}}}
 18,392
Massachusetts Northeastern University
{{{1}}}
 17,382
Pennsylvania Drexel University
{{{1}}}
 16,681
Massachusetts Boston University
{{{1}}}
 16,457
Idaho Brigham Young University, Idaho
{{{1}}}
 16,121
Illinois DePaul University
{{{1}}}
 15,858
Florida Keiser University
{{{1}}}
 15,782
New York Syracuse University
{{{1}}}
 14,768
New York Cornell University
{{{1}}}
 14,366
Texas Baylor University
{{{1}}}
 13,801
New York Rochester Institute of Technology
{{{1}}}
 12,635
Virginia Liberty University
{{{1}}}
 12,577
Florida University of Miami
{{{1}}}
 10,917
New York St. John's University
{{{1}}}
 10,881
Washington, D.C. George Washington University
{{{1}}}
 10,433
Florida Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Worldwide Campus
{{{1}}}
 10,368
Illinois Loyola University, Chicago
{{{1}}}
 10,042
Pennsylvania University of Pennsylvania
{{{1}}}
 9,746
Georgia Savannah College of Art and Design
{{{1}}}
 9,396
California National University
{{{1}}}
 9,346 Open admissions
Delaware Wilmington University
{{{1}}}
 9,255 Open admissions
Massachusetts Boston College
{{{1}}}
 9,154
Illinois Northwestern University
{{{1}}}
 8,936
Illinois Columbia College Chicago
{{{1}}}
 8,929
Rhode Island Johnson and Wales University, Providence
{{{1}}}
 8,846
Missouri Park University
{{{1}}}
 8,686
Texas Texas Christian University
{{{1}}}
 8,600
New York Fordham University
{{{1}}}
 8,485
Indiana University of Notre Dame
{{{1}}}
 8,427
Ohio University of Dayton
{{{1}}}
 8,305
Louisiana Tulane University
{{{1}}}
 8,284
Missouri Saint Louis University
{{{1}}}
 8,271
Wisconsin Marquette University
{{{1}}}
 8,212
Missouri Lindenwood University
{{{1}}}
 7,986
Georgia Emory University
{{{1}}}
 7,730
Washington, D.C. Georgetown University
{{{1}}}
 7,211
Washington, D.C. American University
{{{1}}}
 7,094
California Stanford University
{{{1}}}
 7,018
Washington, D.C. Howard University
{{{1}}}
 6,944
Missouri Washington University, St. Louis
{{{1}}}
 6,913
Pennsylvania Villanova University
{{{1}}}
 6,895
Tennessee Vanderbilt University
{{{1}}}
 6,818
Florida University of Tampa
{{{1}}}
 6,811
New York Hofstra University
{{{1}}}
 6,803
California University of San Francisco
{{{1}}}
 6,745
Massachusetts Harvard College
{{{1}}}
 6,636
Connecticut Quinnipiac University
{{{1}}}
 6,503
North Carolina Duke University
{{{1}}}
 6,480
California California Baptist University
{{{1}}}
 6,435
Michigan Davenport University
{{{1}}}
 6,409
New York Mercy College
{{{1}}}
 6,402
Indiana Indiana Institute of Technology
{{{1}}}
 6,398
Texas Southern Methodist University
{{{1}}}
 6,340
Texas University of the Incarnate Word
{{{1}}}
 6,325
Rhode Island Brown University
{{{1}}}
 6,264
Pennsylvania Carnegie Mellon University
{{{1}}}
 6,237
California Chapman University
{{{1}}}
 6,211
New York Columbia University
{{{1}}}
 6,170
California Azusa Pacific University
{{{1}}}
 6,160
Minnesota University of St. Thomas
{{{1}}}
 6,126
New York Ithaca College
{{{1}}}
 6,085
New York University of Rochester
{{{1}}}
 6,074
California Loyola Marymount University
{{{1}}}
 6,064
Pennsylvania Duquesne University
{{{1}}}
 5,969
New York Touro College
{{{1}}}
 5,870
North Carolina Elon University
{{{1}}}
 5,782
Tennessee Belmont University
{{{1}}}
 5,778
Illinois University of Chicago
{{{1}}}
 5,672
California University of San Diego
{{{1}}}
 5,656
Colorado University of Denver
{{{1}}}
 5,629
New Jersey Seton Hall University
{{{1}}}
 5,609
New York Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
{{{1}}}
 5,557
New York Pace University
{{{1}}}
 5,555
Connecticut Yale University
{{{1}}}
 5,473
California Santa Clara University
{{{1}}}
 5,447
Nebraska Bellevue University
{{{1}}}
 5,437 Open admissions
Pennsylvania Saint Joseph's University
{{{1}}}
 5,378
Massachusetts Suffolk University
{{{1}}}
 5,361
Maryland Johns Hopkins University
{{{1}}}
 5,312
New Jersey Princeton University
{{{1}}}
 5,258
New York Marist College
{{{1}}}
 5,240
Massachusetts Tufts University
{{{1}}}
 5,143
New York Adelphi University
{{{1}}}
 5,036
Pennsylvania Lehigh University
{{{1}}}
 5,034
Connecticut University of New Haven
{{{1}}}
 4,974
Connecticut University of Hartford
{{{1}}}
 4,956
Florida Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
{{{1}}}
 4,954
Connecticut Sacred Heart University
{{{1}}}
 4,904
North Carolina Wake Forest University
{{{1}}}
 4,861
Ohio Case Western Reserve University
{{{1}}}
 4,807
Washington Gonzaga University
{{{1}}}
 4,754
New York LIU Brooklyn
{{{1}}}
 4,750
Pennsylvania York College of Pennsylvania
{{{1}}}
 4,720
Colorado Regis University
{{{1}}}
 4,697
Tennessee Bethel University
{{{1}}}
 4,638
Illinois Lewis University
{{{1}}}
 4,605
Source: The College Board, "Big Future," accessed December 21, 2015. Reproduced with permission.

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Footnotes

  1. ↑ Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named miller
  2. ↑ PBS, "Challenging Race Sensitive Admissions Policies," May 19, 2015
  3. ↑ Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, "Affirmative Action," September 17, 2013
  4. ↑ Sander, R. & Taylor S. (2012). Mismatch: How Affirmative Action Hurts Students It's Intended to Help, and Why Universities Won't Admit It. Basic Books.
  5. ↑ National Conference of State Legislatures, "Affirmative Action|Overview," February 7, 2014
  6. ↑ AP News, "Divided Supreme Court outlaws affirmative action in college admissions, says race can’t be used," accessed June 29, 2023
  7. ↑ Supreme Court of the United States, "Students for Fair Admission, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College," accessed June 29, 2023
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