Asian-Americans make up 19% of Northwestern’s student body compared to a Census-estimated 4.4% of the US population.
In 2005, Yale student Jian Li filed a civil rights complaint against Princeton University. Li claimed that Asian-American students were significantly less likely to be accepted to the university, claiming that Princeton’s affirmative action policies for African-American and Hispanic students constituted “reverse affirmative action” against Asian-American applicants.
Soon after Li filed his complaint, Princeton researchers found that “ignoring race in elite college admissions would result in sharp declines in the numbers of African Americans and Hispanics accepted with little gain for white students.” The study indicated that, were Princeton’s affirmative action program to end, 80% of placements offered to African-American and Hispanic students would be offered to Asian-American students.
Does this reverse affirmative action occur in Northwestern admissions? After Jian Li’s case hit the press, former university president Henry S. Bienen ordered a statistical analysis of Asian-American acceptance. The study found that Asian applicants were not held to higher standards than applicants of other ethnicities at Northwestern.
While Northwestern boasts a 19% Asian-American enrollment, Asian Americans make up only 14% of Brown’s undergraduate student body and 13.8% of University of Chicago’s. In fact, this higher Asian-American enrollment is the only way in which Northwestern’s racial breakdown differs significantly from similarly-ranked schools.
Furthermore, while the percentage of Asian students at University of Chicago and Brown has remained relatively stagnant, Northwestern’s Asian-American population at Northwestern has increased greatly. The class of 2013 was 22% Asian, and Associate Provost of Enrollment Michael Mills estimates that the class of 2014 will be 24% or 25% Asian.
[edits thanks to flawlessfumbles.]
