In the late 1990s, the City University of New York decided to end its open admissions policy. Beginning in 2000, students seeking admission were required to obtain a certain score on a college admission examination.
Since that time admissions at the most prestigious campuses on the CUNY system have become highly competitive. Since 2001 the percentage of incoming freshmen at the five most prestigious undergraduate campuses with combined scores of 1200 or above on the reading and mathematics sections of the SAT has increased from 12 percent to 26 percent. Concurrently, the percentage of Black students in the entering classes at these five campuses has decreased from 17 percent to 10 percent.
