Monday Memo #88: Top Colleges Accept A Far More Diverse Class of 2025
By Noah Howard and Jackson Vachal
Start your week off right, with a round-up of Stanford-related news from Stanford Politics.
Top Colleges Accept A Far More Diverse Class of 2025
With college acceptance season in full swing, the New York Times reports that elite universities’ incoming freshman classes include more students from historically underrepresented minority groups and low-income families than ever before. This sudden shift toward greater diversity at top colleges comes partially from a huge increase in the number of applications to these institutions. Harvard, for example, saw a 48% increase in applications, while MIT’s applicant pool increased by 66%. Applications from students of racial minority identities increased even more than the general applicant pool. At UCLA this year, freshman applications overall increased by 28% while applications from Black and Hispanic students rose by 48% and 33%, respectively. Another factor in the increased diversity at elite colleges is the removal of standardized testing requirements by many institutions. Last year, 650 colleges dropped their standardized testing requirements, and this year only 46% of college applications included test scores. Standardized tests have long been criticized for disadvantaging students from lower-income and less-educated families, who do not have the test preparation resources available to wealthier students. With minority, low-income, and first-generation students less likely to submit test scores, the Times calls the abandonment of standardized testing the “most likely the most important factor in encouraging minority applicants.” The national racial reckoning following the death of George Floyd also seems to have influenced the admissions process, with universities placing a particular focus on the role of race in American society. Some even included application questions addressing racial justice and diversity. Though it is unclear whether the trend of increasing diversity will continue, this year’s admissions are a moment of significant progress for the nation’s elite higher education institutions.
Biden’s First In-Person Visit from a Head of State
On April 13, Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga became the first head of state to visit American President Joe Biden in person and together, they presented the world with the newest iteration of the Japanese-American alliance. Professor of sociology and senior fellow in Japanese studies at Stanford Asia-Pacific Research Center Kiyoteru Tsutsui analyzed these developments. While Japanese leaders were wary that President Biden may take a more conciliatory stance towards China, these concerns proved short lived as just the opposite proved to be true. For the first time in 52 years, Japan commented on the friction between China and Taiwan, calling for a peaceful resolution to cross straight tensions. In the same meeting U.S. officials pledged to extend the parameters of the Japanese-American defensive alliance to include some territories that Japan disputes with China, most notably the Senkaku islands. Additionally, Japanese and American officials have expanded cooperation amongst the Quad, an informal alliance between Japan, India, the US and Australia, to check Chinese ambitions in the region. These four nations have engaged in joint military exercises and have even considered expanding the alliance to other concerned nations in the region, including South Korea, New Zealand and the Philippines. However, Tsutsui warns that China will likely try to individually discourage nations from joining this group, a strategy it used to great effect in years past, convincing Australia to withdraw from the organization in 2008 before it rejoined it during the Trump presidency.
The GOP Has a new Target: Hispanic Voters
In several articles, Hoover Institution senior fellow David L. Leal reflects on the changing voting patterns of Latinx voters. The Latinx community in the United States is set to become the largest minority voting bloc in the country, increasing to over 32 million voters during the 2020 presidential election. Surprising many experts, Trump even saw a marked increase in his support amongst latinx voters since 2016. Leal points to certain trends within the Latinx community to explain these changes. Republicans saw their largest gains occur in protestant, third generation and low income latinx communities, all set to grow substantially in coming years. Leal also highlights the failure of Democrat leaders in courting Latinx voters, placing a substantial amount of blame on Democrats failing to appreciate the diversity of the Latinx community. In moving forward, Leal recommends that GOP leadership reform its message on immigration, harking back to the days of Ronald Reagan. This “compassionate conservative” ideology Leal describes was effectively utilized by both Reagan and Bush Jr. to attract a substantial portion of the Latinx community to the GOP, nearly 40% of Latinx voters voted for Bush in 2004.
And in case you missed it…
Stanford to Require COVID-19 Vaccination in Fall (Catania and Hsieh | The Stanford Daily)
Imagine, Surgery Without a Scar (The New York Times | Kolata)
Chauvin guilty verdict is important, but more work needs to be done to advance racial justice, Stanford scholars say (De Witte and Driscoll | Stanford University News)
About the Authors
Noah Howard ’22 is pursuing majors in Economics and International Relations with a minor in Iranian Studies. Living in Washington D.C., he is currently writing a thesis about the role of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard in Iranian Politics.
Jackson Vachal ’22 is pursuing majors in Political Science and Philosophy, with a focus on democratic theory. A San Francisco native, he is interested in social entrepreneurship and nonprofit advocacy work.