Recently, the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities informed applicants if they had been accepted for admission into the Class of 2020. Some of these institutions have become extremely selective, accepting between 5 and 10 percent of all applicants. Some of the nation’s most selective institutions provided acceptance data broken down by race and ethnic group.
At Harvard University, 2,037 applicants were accepted from a record high pool of 39,041 students. Fourteen percent of all admitted students are African Americans. This is a record for Harvard. A year ago, African Americans were 12.1 percent of the students who were accepted for admission and 10.9 percent of those students who enrolled in the Class of 2019.
Tufts University in Massachusetts accepted 14 percent of all applicants, the lowest rate in its history. Tufts reports that 6 percent of all accepted students are African Americans and 9 percent of all accepted students self-identify as Black. The current first-year class at Tufts is 4.7 percent Black
Pomona College in Claremont, California, reports that domestic students of color make up more than one half of all admitted students. Some 12.4 percent of all admitted students are Black. A year ago Blacks were 11.6 percent of all admitted students but 14.5 percent of those students who enrolled.
Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts, admitted 1,206 applicants to its Class of 2020. Of these 186, or 15.4 percent are Black. Last year, 16.8 percent of all admitted students were Black and Blacks made up 13.1 percent of the students who eventually enrolled.
The University of Southern California in Los Angeles admitted 8,920 students from an applicant pool of 54,100 students. Six percent of the admitted students are African Americans. In 2015, African Americans made up 8 percent of all students accepted for admission. Blacks are 7 percent of the current first-year class.
