Update on Race, College Admissions and Public Opinion
Frank Newport
February 17, 2023
The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on how Harvard and the University of North Carolina use race in college admissions is expected by early June. Informed expectations are that the high court will find against the two universities and rule that race cannot be considered as a factor in admissions.
The use of race or other ascriptive characteristics in college admissions (and in many other situations in American society) has a long history. Most selective colleges in the past explicitly took such characteristics (religion, ethnic background, gender) into account in their admissions policies. It was only in the decades of the 1960s and 1970s that most Ivy League schools began to admit students with the ascriptive characteristic of being female. Highly selective schools admitted few Black students until after World War II.
The general trend of U.S. history has been to remove such considerations in making hiring and admissions decisions, under the force of law.
