Affirmative Action Statistics in College Admissions

At the end of October 2022, anti-affirmative action group Students for Fair Admissions made its case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina to the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the constitutionality of race-based college admissions, also known as affirmative action.

In June 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in a vote of 6-3, no longer allowing schools to consider race in college admissions.

Previous BestColleges survey data indicated that most students believe racial and ethnic diversity improves the learning environment (59%) and social experience (62%) for students. Just 37% of students, however, support using race and ethnicity in college admissions.

This report explores the history of affirmative action, the Harvard affirmative action Supreme Court case, and the effects of affirmative action bans on the University of California (UC) schools, which were the first to eliminate the practice.

Affirmative action in higher education was originally put in place during the civil rights movement to diversify student bodies that were almost exclusively white. In the late 1960s, colleges and universities began to consider race as a factor in admissions, giving extra consideration to underrepresented groups.

Since its inception, affirmative action has been controversial, with different sides arguing over its efficacy, fairness, and legality.

Prior to the June 2023 ruling, eight states had already successfully banned affirmative action, with other states reversing (Texas in 2003, Washington in 2022) or failing to pass (Colorado in 2008) the measures.^{[9], [10]}

The UC schools were the first to ban race-conscious methods from college admissions after a Supreme Court ruling in 1996. The most recent state was Idaho, which banned affirmative action in areas of public employment and education.^{Note Reference [3]}

According to a 2023 Pew Research Center survey, half of U.S. adults (50%) disapproved of selective colleges considering race and ethnicity in admissions decisions, while just one-third of U.S. adults (33%) approved.^{Note Reference [6]}

In the same survey, nearly half of Americans (49%) said that considering race and ethnicity makes college admissions less fair.^{Note Reference [6]} In contrast, 20% said that it makes the process more fair, and 30% said it does not affect the fairness of the admissions process or they are not sure.

Based on 2022 data from the Pew Research Center, the U.S. public continues to view high school grades and standardized test scores as the most important considerations in college admissions.^{Note Reference [11]}

According to the 2023 Pew Research Center survey, race appeared to strongly affect U.S. adults’ attitudes on affirmative action.

While a higher overall percentage of U.S. adults continue to disapprove of affirmative action in college admissions than approve, support for affirmative action in college admissions appears to have increased significantly from prior polls.

Political affiliation was also a strong indicator of people’s opinions on affirmative action.

The conservative nonprofit Students for Fair Admissions originally filed two lawsuits related to affirmative action in 2014. One accused Harvard College (the undergraduate institute of Harvard University) of being discriminatory towards Asian American applicants. The second claimed the University of North Carolina rejected race-neutral alternatives without proper justification.

Prior to the June 2023 ruling, the most recent Supreme Court decision regarding affirmative action was from 2013 (Fisher v. University of Texas), which stated that universities could factor in race in admissions when race-neutral alternatives do not suffice.^[14]

In fall 2021, Black and African American students made up 9.37% of the Harvard undergraduate class.^[16] In fall 2022, African American students made up a record-breaking 15.2% of admitted undergraduates.^[17]

Since President Johnson mandated affirmative action, the number of Black student enrollees has drastically increased. But, the question of whether these figures were only possible through race-conscious methods is a point of debate.

In 1996, California became the first state to outlaw affirmative action at public universities. Harvard’s Black student population (9.37%) is more than double UC Berkeley’s (3.8%) and UCLA’s (6%).

Here’s the demographic breakdown of California’s most selective public colleges:

Starting on January 1, 1997, public universities in California were banned from considering race in college admissions.

In 1995, 20% of students enrolling at UC schools were from underrepresented groups (URGs). But this number decreased after California banned affirmative action. It didn’t fully recover until 2006.^[19]

The June 2023 Supreme Court ruling banning the use of race-conscious methods in college admissions may widen existing racial gaps for Black and Hispanic and Latino/a students attending their state’s flagship universities.

A Hechinger Report from 2023 identified where some of those gaps already exist.^[20]

The UC school system currently has a merit-based policy. As of fall 2022, California guarantees admission to at least one UC school to all in-state high school graduates in the top 9% of their class.^[21]

California originally unveiled its “Master Plan” in 1960 which guaranteed admission to the UC schools for the top 12.5% of California high school graduates and admission to the state schools for those graduating in the top third.^[22]

While the UC system initially experienced a dip in URG enrollment after the affirmative action ban, numbers have risen significantly in recent years. There is still a considerable gap, however, between the state’s high school URG graduates (59% in 2016) and URG enrollees at UC schools (37%).^{Note Reference [22]}

The University of Texas currently honors a top 6% plan, originally the “Top 10% Law” from 1997, guaranteeing admission to Texas high school graduates who graduate at the top of their class.^[23]

Texas has implemented a mixed approach, factoring in a student’s socioeconomic background (i.e., school neighborhood, parents’ education history, and income level) and high school performance.

While admissions rates are one way to measure a policy’s effectiveness, graduation rates are also telling of URG students’ experiences in higher education.