The Scoop on Affirmative Action

As an incoming black college student, affirmative action is a policy that could affect you. During the past twenty years, affirmative action has been a hot-button political issue, with a sharp division between people who believe that it is a vital tool used by admissions officers to ensure a diverse student body, and those who believe that it is a discriminatory policy that has overstayed its usefulness. There is no question that affirmative action helps schools to boost minority enrollment. Princeton University researchers have found that if affirmative action were eliminated, admission rates for black students at colleges across the country would drop from 33.7 percent to 12.2 percent.

History of Affirmative Action

Affirmative action was instituted to help to correct an imbalance in college admissions. There was a large discrepancy between the percentage of minorities in the U.S. population and the percentage of minorities enrolled in college. Underrepresented minorities, including Hispanic and black students, received special consideration in admissions to ensure that colleges had diverse student bodies.

In the past, this special consideration included quota systems dictating that a certain number of minority students must be in each incoming class. Quotas have now been banned, but affirmative action remains. The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in on the issue in 2003, upholding affirmative action as long as it is not used as part of a points system in evaluating student applications.

How Can Affirmative Action Help You?

Under affirmative action, your minority status might give you a boost in the admissions game if you choose to attend a college beyond the circuit of historically black colleges. If admissions officers are deciding between you and a non-minority student with the same grades, SAT scores, and extracurricular activities, you could have a considerable edge.

How Does Affirmative Action Affect Historically Black Colleges?

Affirmative action does not tend to be a factor in admissions decisions at historically black colleges and universities, which already have a high percentage of minority students. Some people worry that affirmative action is actually harmful to black colleges. When other colleges and universities admit and enroll more minority students, the pool of potential students at black colleges shrinks.

Affirmative action is still a divisive political issue, but the Supreme Court's 2003 decision ensures that it will remain a force in college admissions, helping to create culturally diverse incoming classes.

Sources:
Chronicle of Higher Education: "Supreme Court Upholds Affirmative Action in College Admissions"
CNN.com: "Narrow Use of Affirmative Action Approved in College Admissions"
News at Princeton: "Ending Affirmative Action Would Devastate Most Minority College Enrollment"
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: "Affirmative Action"