Roger Clegg, Center for Equal Opportunity, May 16, 2017

A new book by Rebecca Zwick, Who Gets In?, has some interesting data on, among other things, the effect of racial preferences on university admissions. According to the discussion this week in Inside Higher Ed:

What she found is that an admissions system based solely on grades and test scores would result in significant increases in Asian [and white] enrollments and declines in enrollments of underrepresented minority [i.e., black and Latino, and sometimes American Indian] students. …

Model for Impact of Different Admissions Models at Colleges That Admit Less Than 10% of Applicants

Race/Ethnicity Current If Decisions Based Only on Grades/Test Scores If Race-Based Affirmative Action Added If Socioeconomic Affirmative Action Added Asian 12.1% 15.6% 12.5% 14.9% Underrepresented 12.4% 2.5% 15.6% 5.6% More than one race 3.8% 1.5% 1.4% 2.3% White 71.7% 80.4% 70.5% 77.2%

The article notes, “Zwick is a major proponent of affirmative action, but some of the data in the book may well be useful to those trying to eliminate the consideration of race in admissions.” You bet.