Harvard admits majority nonwhite freshman class

Credit: Steve Dunwell

Credit: Steve Dunwell

Harvard’s incoming class of students, most of which will graduate in 2021, is majority nonwhite.

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Of the students admitted from minority groups, 22.2 percent are Asian, 14.6 percent are African-American, 11.6 percent are Latino and 2.5 percent are Native American or Pacific Islander, according to Harvard, putting the percentage of minority students at approximately 50.8 -- slightly more than half of all incoming freshmen.

Conflicting reports claim the class may or may not be the Ivy League university's first majority nonwhite group in nearly 400 years.

But a 2016 report by the Harvard Gazette showed last year's incoming class to be 51.4 percent nonwhite.

Admissions data on Harvard's website show only 16.5 percent of students for the class of 2021 come from New England. More than 15 percent of the people admitted come from the Pacific U.S., 18.7 percent of incoming freshman come from the South and 21.3 percent come from the Middle Atlantic. Twelve percent of the class come from international locations.

Nearly 40,000 people applied for admittance to Harvard for the 2017-2018 school year. Just over 2,000 were admitted.

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According to the Los Angeles Times, at least two other Ivy League schools, Princeton and Cornell, also offered admission to majority nonwhite students.

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Last week, the New York Times reported that the Trump administration plans to reexamine affirmative action admissions policies at American colleges and universities that may discriminate against white applicants.

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