Closed Doors: Black and Latino Students Are Excluded from Top Public Universities

By Elizabeth Baylor, Center for American Progress (12.5 minute read)

In the fall of 2014, 297,000 African American and Latino students enrolled in America’s top public research universities. While access to such elite educations will likely put these individuals on a path for lifelong success, a new analysis of federal data from the Center for American Progress shows that if these students were proportionately represented, another 193,000 students of color would have received the same opportunity. Instead, in a pattern that repeats itself in nearly every state, the doors to America’s top public colleges remain firmly closed to the vast majority of black and Latino undergraduate students. As a result, in nearly every state, these students are significantly overrepresented at less-selective public four-year colleges, as well as at community colleges, compared with their white and Asian peers.

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Disparities in college enrollment matter, as the type of school a student attends plays a substantial role in their likelihood of successful completion. The most elite public colleges conduct high levels of academic research, have selective admissions, and produce strong outcomes. At these colleges, the average graduation rate is nearly double those at less-selective public colleges. Meanwhile, students who attend public four-year colleges are more likely to graduate than those who attend community colleges. READ MORE