Affirmative Action Was Banned. What Happened Next Was Confusing

It was curious to see the Harvard group expressing concern about the percentage of black freshmen dropping by a "huge" amount (from 18% to 14%). Given that blacks represent about 13% of the US population, what proportion would they consider is a "fair" representation?

The article is just stating reality in a sensationalized way. In summary, the article states that in the majority of cases, what was expected to happen happened - black enrollment went down, Asian enrollment went up. However, in a minority of schools, things didn't follow this pattern. Shocking.

The article shines a light on some schools that did not follow this pattern. One major reason is completely inconsistent reporting methods and requirements. This is always the challenge with US universities in everything from academics to athletics. Different states have different reporting laws and there are vastly different requirements for public schools vs. private.

What I found interesting was the point that maybe at some schools, this reflects reality - that black students were over-represented to begin with. Different factors that some schools are using like recruiting from rural areas and parental wealth do increase diverse representation in a more equitable and deserving way.

If you know a student’s residential zip code, high school, and name you can make a very educated guess without ever asking race.

The rules changed but the ideology hasn’t.

I am dying to know what happened next, anyone have the content?

they need to talk to potential college applicants, or find a way to. theyre using enrollment as a proxy for everything and relying on the assumption that the admissions office has all of these ingrained biases that only the federal government was holding back. but they dont have the data on the applications or applications that never occurred

article says black population is affected the most, but still in unexpected ways.

many black students may not have applied to the same places based on a less rosy economic outlook that has historically affected black populations more heavily, especially those that didn't plan on financial aid

which may have had nothing to do with the change in admission mandates, just the year it happened in

without factoring the other potential ideas in and relying on these amorphous racial groupings, the crowd that cares will never get to a holistic view of reality

Interesting to me that no one complains about the private Ivy League universities soaking up the 'best and brightest,' yet the 'consolidation of the best' is the core argument against private education for K-12, and also the thrust of the big freakout over the collapse of affirmative action Supreme Court ruling. This suggests a selective tolerance for elite consolidation depending on the educational stage and the implications for diversity and meritocracy.