Summary
Last June, the US Supreme Court ended race-conscious affirmative action, bringing heightened attention to inequities in higher education. Although access to higher education for historically underrepresented students has improved overall, the quality of that opportunity remains uneven, particularly along the lines of race/ethnicity and class.
Progress Interrupted: Evaluating a Decade of Demographic Change at Selective and Open-Access Institutions Prior to the End of Race-Conscious Affirmative Action demonstrates that even with race-conscious affirmative action, diversity gains made at the nation’s most selective colleges and universities were incremental at best. The US is still a long way from successfully closing equity gaps by race/ethnicity at selective universities, while historically underrepresented students continue to disproportionately enroll in open-access institutions.
Selective versus Open-Access Institutions
For this analysis, we relied on the Barron’s selectivity index to categorize schools into three broad groups: selective, middle-tier, and open-access. Barron’s selectivity criterion considers colleges’ acceptance rates, in addition to admitted students’ class rank, GPA, and ACT or SAT scores.
In 2019, there were 498 colleges categorized as selective, defined as those in the top three tiers of Barron’s selectivity index: “most competitive,” “highly competitive,” and “very competitive.” Middle-tier institutions—which are not the main focus of this report—consist of institutions labeled as “competitive.” Open-access institutions are defined as those classified as “less competitive” or “non-competitive” in Barron’s selectivity index, as well as four-year institutions that are not ranked by Barron’s and all less-than-four-year institutions.
Racial/Ethnic Disparities
While race-conscious admissions policies were intended to increase the number of students from historically marginalized backgrounds, Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, and American Indian/Alaska Native students remain underrepresented in selective college enrollment relative to their shares of the college-age population. In 2019, American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino students collectively composed 37 percent of the college-age population but just 21 percent of selective college enrollment. By comparison, white and Asian American/Pacific Islander students accounted for 60 percent of the college-age population but 73 percent of enrollment at selective institutions in 2019.
The small increase in the share of historically marginalized students attending selective institutions was largely driven by Hispanic/Latino students, who nearly doubled their share of the enrollment from 2009 to 2019. During the same timeframe, the enrollment of Black/African American students increased by just 5 percent—or by 5,000 students—at selective universities. Meanwhile, the number of American Indian/Alaska Native students attending selective institutions fell by half.
Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the US Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2009–10 and 2019–20; National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)-Barron’s Admissions Competitiveness Index Data Files, 2014; and US Census Bureau and Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey (CPS), March Supplement, 2009 and 2019.
Note: The data reflect fall enrollment for first-time undergraduate degree/certificate-seeking students in the designated academic years. Selective institutions include the top three tiers of colleges in Barron’s selectivity index (2014).
Socioeconomic Disparities
College enrollment among students from low-income backgrounds, as measured by the share of students who received Pell Grants, peaked in 2009 and has steadily declined overall since then. Most of these losses occurred at open-access institutions: First-time enrollment of Pell Grant recipients increased by approximately 30,000 students at selective colleges from 2009 to 2019. Despite these gains, Pell Grant recipients still make up a small share of enrollment at selective colleges. In 2019, less than one in four students at the most selective colleges were Pell Grant recipients. By contrast, Pell Grant recipients account for more than half of student enrollment at open-access institutions.
Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of student finance data from the US Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), 2009–10 and 2019–20; and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)-Barron’s Admissions Competitiveness Index Data Files, 2014.
Note: The data reflect fall enrollment for first-time, full-time undergraduate degree/certificate-seeking students in the designated academic years. Selective institutions include the top three tiers of colleges in Barron’s selectivity index (2014). Open-access institutions are defined as those in the fifth and sixth tiers of Barron’s selectivity index, four-year institutions not classified by Barron’s, and all less-than-four-year institutions.
Conclusion
Enrollment disparities between selective and open-access institutions matter because outcomes matter. At the median, selective institutions spend more than twice as much on student services and academic support per student and have more full-time faculty per student than open-access colleges. These factors contribute to higher graduation rates and better opportunities across the board for graduates of selective colleges. However, the focus of reform must extend beyond the tiny slice of colleges at the very top. Improving outcomes at open-access institutions could have a life-changing impact on a much larger number of students and, thus, society at large.
Source: Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce analysis of data from the US Department of Education, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), graduation cohort year 2015 (four-year) and graduation cohort year 2018 (two-year); and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES)-Barron’s Admissions Competitiveness Index Data Files, 2014.
Note: Graduation rates are based on completion within 150 percent of normal time. Selective institutions include the top three tiers of colleges in Barron’s selectivity index (2014). Open-access institutions are defined as those in the fifth and sixth tiers of Barron’s selectivity index, as well as four-year institutions not classified by Barron’s and all less-than-four-year institutions.
Resources
Progress Interrupted: Evaluating a Decade of Demographic Change at Selective and Open-Access Institutions Prior to the End of Race-Conscious Affirmative Action finds that American Indian/Alaska Native, Black/African American, and Hispanic/Latino students remain underrepresented in selective college enrollment relative to their share of the college-age population.
