students required their perseverance and intensive support. Opinion Opinion: Now that affirmative action is banned, the way to level the field is one Black student at a timeĮven without the burden of ‘colorblind’ admissions policies, equalizing opportunities for South L.A. But standardized test scores would be irrelevant for community colleges since they are open-access institutions that generally do not require the SAT or ACT for admission. Elite institutions remain devoted to these tests, even in a post-pandemic, test-optional environment. For one, standardized test scores, which are fraught with disparities, are mostly absent from the transfer admissions process. Students attending community colleges form a diverse pipeline for baccalaureate institutions while dodging some of the issues that complicate recruitment efforts for high school graduates. But Carleton College economist Nathan Grawe forecasts that high school senior classes will shrink in the coming decade, creating even more incentive for elite universities to open their doors to a broader swath of individuals. Even though they are likely within driving distance of at least one community college, these institutions have not built strong enrollment pipelines with those neighbor schools. Most elite institutions have chosen to recruit the bulk of their students directly from high school. Yet Harvard, for example, admits on its website that it only takes 12 transfer students per year. And among first-time college students entering a community college, surveys show that the vast majority seek to transfer and earn a baccalaureate degree. They boast significant racial and ethnic diversity: The Department of Education reports that among all students attending community colleges, 27% identify as Hispanic, 12% as African American and 1% as American Indian or Alaska Native, considerably higher than most percentages in the Ivy League. Ivy league and other peer schools need to do something they’ve never done with any consistency or devotion: widen their enrollment pipeline to welcome transfer students from community colleges in substantial numbers.Ĭommunity colleges represent the largest sector of higher education in the U.S., enrolling 41% of all undergraduates in fall 2020 at more than 1,000 colleges. Now what?įor Subscribers The most lucrative majors? Some community college grads can outearn elite university peersĬommunity college graduates in healthcare fields can outearn humanities students even from elite universities such as Stanford, UC Berkeley and UCLA, underscoring how much majors can matter. But as of last month, that strategy is against the law. As a result, colleges and universities as different as UCLA, Miami-Dade College and the University of Nebraska have been forced to develop admissions strategies that do not rely on an applicant’s stated race and ethnicity to create diverse college campuses.Įlite institutions, especially private colleges and universities, have insisted that they face unique challenges that require the use of race and ethnicity to help create classes that reflect the diversity of the U.S. These state-level prohibitions have passed legal muster after repeated challenges. Nine states (five blue and four red) have banned the use of race and ethnicity in admission, most notably California, whose voters passed Proposition 209 in 1996. Higher education has been dealing with anti-affirmative-action legislation for a long time. The Supreme Court’s decision to outlaw the use of race and ethnicity in college admissions late last month was neither unexpected nor profound, even if it was disheartening.
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