First look at how college enrollment has changed since Supreme Court ruling on affirmative action

One of America’s most prestigious universities, MIT, is revealing how its student body has changed after the Supreme Court eliminated affirmative action from admission decisions. Black and Hispanic students saw the largest drops in admissions, with Black students making up just 5% of this year’s incoming class, compared to 13% the previous four years. NBC News’ Rehema Ellis speaks to students and professors about the changes.

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#DEI #Education #University

Instead of focusing on college, you need to fix K-12 education.

[Blackjack]

They should have gotten rid of legacy admissions if they were really about keeping things fair and equal. The fact that wasn't even up for debate speaks volumes.

Edit: A lot of the replies to this comment, justifying legacies, just prove people don't really want a leveled meritocracy (and it seems like some know that doesn't really exist with any policy being suggested). They just want to see certain groups have avenues to have a leg up and for others to be held back. Just full of bad faith

[OnNaturalRebel]

Dear black people, we have HBCU’s! Invest in our own ❤

[yasip]

I am African American. I had decent grades throughout grade school and high school, and I have a higher than average IQ (about 140). However, to tell you the truth, intelligence doesn't always more than adequately prepare you for the rigors of college and academic life. I had a horrible run at undergrad when I was young. I mean absolutely horrible. I was lucky to graduate. 20 years later, I went to grad school. I graduated at the top of my class with distinction just shy of a 4.0. I'll be starting my doctorate next spring. My point is, people change. My point is, just because someone doesn't produce the best grades, doesn't mean they are incapable of doing so. There are many factors that contribute to a person's academic success and failures. Socioeconomic factors for one. Some students simply do not excel because they are not adequately supported prior to applying for college. Some students need to be acclimated to the change in culture and lifestyle academic life will bring. Some students cannot work three jobs (as I did) and still do well in school. Let's keep this in mind when discussing merit and judging others.

[jayyc]

How about we invest more to pre college education in minority communities instead of just blame on ending AA?

[billtruttschel]

Skin color should never be a factor in admissions or employment.

[charlesanderson]

Get rid of LEGACY ADMISSIONS. That’s the only way to see the truth of the situation

[odesangel]

The students say they care about diversity, but take a look at who's standing next to them. They hang out with people who look just like them. They only say they care about diversity because that's what they're supposed to say.

[biscaynesupercars]

Colleges especially Ivy League colleges are already some of the whitest places in the country. If you take away the athletes its even whiter. Banning any affirmative action would drop black student enrollment from just a few to barely any at all. Yet legacy students aren’t an issue. Nobody pointed out that during that college admission scandal at Stanford and other colleges not 1 of the students or families involved were black. Everybody will focus on the 3 black kids on campus and question why are they there instead of the hundreds of legacy kids or non black kids that cheated their way in to that school.

[Nassuvian_Celtic]

Meritocracy is a myth in the US.

To pretend those getting in aren’t benefiting from huge advantages in family wealth is a joke. Consultant literally have made Ivy League admissions their full time job.

Also, it’s not about focusing on “pre-k”. It’s about fixing the systems that caused people not to be able to afford pre-k.

[V]

Should be based on academic merit not race.

[bobat]

It’s wrong to conflate diversity with only student race and not economic background etc. If MIT wants more diversity then they should set up prep programs at high schools with the demographics they want to increase.

[Michael-ntrp]

At MIT, the drop is from 13% to 5%! I feel sorry for those qualified students who were displaced by the unqualified ones in the past.

[ghengis]

The people against Affirmative Action's arguments would hold more weight if they believed something systematic should be done to alleviate the disparities certain groups of people have based on where they're born and the conditions that they grow up in. But those same people probably don't support allocating extra funds to helping those communities out.
I'd be willing to bet most of those people are against free school lunch, no way they'd support "leveling the playing field earlier" on a systemic level.

[davids]

Diversity is one of the biggest reasons I came to MIT.

No, it's not. You went for the brand name. If you wanted diversity, you'd have gone to a HBCU

[philiplam]

Do more to prepare young people for college. Trying to solve diversity through college admissions is too late.

[senai]

Putting resources towards black underfunded schools pre-k and up would help.
If all schools received the same funding and every child had access to a "good" pre k-high school. That would help.
If these schools incorporated SAT prep into their school curriculum that would also help as it would give all students access to it.

[lukasky]

The biggest sham is making people believe they have to go to certain "name brand" schools to be successful. There are plenty of excellent colleges and universities across the country. In the long run, where you go to college has very little bearing on how successful, happy, or fulfilled you will be in life.

[Tony-vw]

Black people please start supporting HBCUs, they are just as good as of some of these so called Ivory league schools. Instead of "investing" in fake hair, nails, BBLs, eye lashes, rims, jewelry, and trying to become the next rapper we should be investing in tangible things that will benefit our community. Every other group does Jews, Middle Easterns, Italians and etc. We have HBCUs and Medical/Dental schools. We should be partnering with top S.T.E.M schools in Africa and start grooming young and old to go beyond the successes of Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos. We should be leaders in new tech and medicine and have tier one medical centers that rival Mass General. But unfortunately this plea will fall on deaf ears.

[curtisdavis]

no need to worry about diversity in college, we need to fix our public high schools First.... 😔