Harvard University accepts a record number of black students

Amid recent encouraging reports of African-American students getting accepted to most or all of the Ivy League schools, comes new data suggesting that Harvard University may be leading the way on diversity.

According to Journal of Blacks in Higher Education, the highly ranked institution’s class of 2018 will be 12 percent black, the largest representation of that group in the university’s history.

That will translate to roughly 170 new black students this coming fall. Overall, Harvard accepted around 2,000 students from a pool of over 34,000 applicants.

Last month, theGrio reported that D.C. teen Avery Coffey had been accepted to five of the eight Ivy League institutions, including Harvard.

When asked what he aspires to be, Coffey said, “I guess probably the CEO of an investment (or management consulting) firm. I guess pretty much overseeing acquisitions or transactions between large companies. Hopefully, Fortune 500 companies.”

Earlier this month, theGrio also covered the exceptional Kwasi Enin of Shirley, N.Y., who managed to get accepted to all eight Ivy League schools.

He scored 2,250 out of 2,400 on the SAT. That places him in the 99th percentile for all students taking the exam.

Neither student has revealed which university they are going to attend. But if they pick Harvard they will at least be a part of a growing minority.