Race and Higher Education in America

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A college degree in America translates to better jobs and more wealth. But students of color still face barriers, including high tuition, when pursuing higher education.

A college degree in America translates to better jobs and more wealth.

Illustration of a man in a graduation cap and gown from behind

Deep Dive: Hard Truths - Higher Education

Latin America and Latinos

A college degree in America translates to better jobs and more wealth. But students of color still face barriers, including high tuition, when pursuing higher education.

President Biden has made the COVID-19 crisis and a post-Trump return to national unity and traditional democratic ideals his top priorities. From vaccinations to stimulus to schools, Biden is seeking bipartisan compromise while showing a willingness to use executive authority and bare Democratic majorities in the U.S. House and Senate to implement his policies. Republican leaders are navigating deep party divisions over if and how to move beyond former President Trump.

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After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

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Finish Line

Axios Finish Line

Data: National Center for Education Statistics; Chart: Connor Rothschild/Axios

Affirmative action, which for 60 years has increased the number of students of color at American universities, is on the chopping block. A case accusing Harvard of discriminating against Asian applicants has made it to the Supreme Court, and the court could elect to get rid of the 60-year-old policy.

Why it matters: While that's an unlikely outcome, it could push colleges to come up with better ways of promoting diversity on campus rather than just looking at race, says Mitchell Chang, an education professor at UCLA.

One possible alternative would be for colleges to look more closely at the high schools students are applying from and admit applicants from a diverse range of schools: rich and poor, as well as predominantly non-white.

Quick take: More than 70% of Americans, regardless of race, see college and post-graduate degrees as a way to succeed professionally and financially, a newly released Axios/Ipsos poll on inequities in higher education found. 

For people of color, higher education can help close a significant wealth gap. 

But here's a hard truth: If we did away with affirmative action, higher education would be a lot more homogenous — primarily dominated by white and Asian students. 

The University of California system got rid of affirmative action through a ballot proposition in the late 1990s, and the effect was immediate, the New York Times reports. Black and Latino enrollment at the top UC schools — Berkeley and Los Angeles — fell sharply, and those students were largely replaced by white and Asian students.

When UCLA Law went with a race-neutral admissions system, enrollment of Black and Native American students fell by more than 70%.

The state of play:  Black, Latino and Native American students are far likelier than their white and Asian peers to have lower standardized test scores and lower grades — too often because they attend underfunded and under-resourced high schools.

White, East Asian and South Asian students are also likelier to have access to advanced placement courses and standardized test prep. 

Many students of color, including many who are the first in their family to pursue higher education, first turn to community colleges to boost their careers. 

Meanwhile, college costs have tripled for public four-year colleges and more than doubled for public two-year schools and private, nonprofit four-year schools, while median family incomes for the lowest quintile have grown 21% in the past 30 years. 

By the numbers: College campuses are more diverse than they were a few decades ago, but there's still a wide racial enrollment gap. 

In 2019, 89.9% of recent Asian high school graduates, 66.9% of recent white graduates and 63.4% of Latino graduates were enrolled in college, compared with 50.7% of Black graduates, per Bureau of Labor Statistics data.

The bottom line: Ending affirmative action decreases the number of students of color at top colleges and their chance at higher lifetime earnings.

Affirmative action on campus is endangered

Ending the policy could push colleges to find better ways to promote diversity on campus.

Race and ethnicity demographics of community college students, 2019

Data: NCES (IPEDS); Adapted from AACC; Chart: Axios Visuals

By the numbers: People of color today represent the majority of students attending around 1,000 or so community colleges in the U.S., according to the American Association of Community Colleges.

Average in-state tuition for public community college is $3,770 annually compared to $10,560 at a public four-year university, based on 2020-2021 data.

About 2.4 million community college students attend full time, while 4.4 million are part-time.

How it works: Many community colleges have open enrollment, allowing students to forgo expensive prep classes for entrance exams and long application processes — systemic barriers that put college out-of-reach for some students of color.

The schools partner with local businesses, tribal governments and nearby high-tech labs to offer students internships and jobs during and after completing degrees.

They have dedicated departments easing the process for students to transfer to four-year colleges, though some now offer four-year degrees, too.

Yashana Rivera, a 2021 Northern Essex Community College Nursing graduate. Photo: NECC

What they're saying: "They provide the support that we need. And they bridge those gaps. Some of us have knowledge deficits. Some of us are English-language learners. They tell you: No matter where you are ... you can do this," Northern Essex Community College graduate Rivera told Axios. 

Rivera received her associate degree in nursing at the age of 29, while also working. "There's no timetable to success here."  

"I don't feel like I'm being judged coming from where I'm from. I can just focus on being a student," Miguel Eagle, a 22-year-old student at Oglala Lakota College, a school on Oglala Sioux tribal land in South Dakota that offers associate and bachelor's degrees. 

Eagle is seeking a degree in Lakota Studies with an emphasis in cultural tourism and wants to pursue a graduate degree at Stanford.

Vlad Ventura and Miguel Eagle side-by-side

Vlad Ventura and Miguel Eagle. Photos: Courtesy of students

Yes, but: Historically unfunded community colleges sometimes serve areas dealing with population declines and face cuts, highlighting the schools' shaky financial models based on enrollment growth, a 2021 report from the Association of Community College Trustees found.

Tribal community colleges can struggle to find regular local funding sources, and other community colleges have faced criticism for not updating programs to meet career needs in the tech-driven economy.

What to watch: Community colleges are actively addressing the nation's labor shortages in education, law enforcement and technology, and getting workers in those jobs as fast as possible.

Vlad Ventura, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, took advantage of a Northern Essex Community College program that recently placed him in a Liberty Mutual computer science internship.

"I don't know if I could have done that without them," Ventura told Axios. He's planning on transferring to UMass-Lowell. 

The community college lifeline to people of color

"They tell you: No matter where you are...you can do this."

Illustration of three college students walking across the screen with quarters in the background

Yashana Rivera thought a rough freshman year 10 years ago had brought her college days to an end. But a community college restored her confidence and provided the means to achieve her dream of becoming a nurse.Why it matters: As college tuition and application fees skyrocket, community colleges offer working-class students, immigrants and students of color like Rivera a more affordable, flexible path to middle-class careers.

Closer

Axios Closer

Reproduced from a College Board report; Chart: Axios Visuals

Average published college tuition and fees have more than doubled for public two-year schools and private nonprofit four-year schools, and close to tripled for public four-year schools between the 1990-1991 and the 2020-2021 school years, according to the College Board.

Why it matters: Median incomes grew 21% for the lowest quintile of families between 1989 and 2019.

How it works: A bachelor’s degree can mean close to $3 million in lifetime earnings, according to a Georgetown University report. 

But race, ethnicity and gender all play a role. The best-educated Black Americans and Latinos will fall nearly $1 million short of their white and Asian counterparts over a lifetime with a degree that costs the same.

The soaring price of college

Median incomes have grown 21% for the lowest quintile of families between 1989 and 2019.

Average published college tuition and fees have more than doubled for public two-year schools and private nonprofit four-year schools, and close to tripled for public four-year schools between the 1990-1991 and the 2020-2021 school years, according to the <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="College Board" data-vars-click-url="https://research.collegeboard.org/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2020.pdf" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://research.collegeboard.org/pdf/trends-college-pricing-student-aid-2020.pdf" target="_blank">College Board</a>.Why it matters: Median incomes grew 21% for the lowest quintile of families between 1989 and 2019.

Standardized testing is just one hurdle for students of color to clear before school even begins, but more schools are dropping the admission test requirement. 

Why it matters: A college degree can mean the difference of at least $2.8 million on average over one lifetime, not to mention inclusion in social and professional networks that can improve career opportunities.

Even before enrollment, people of color and lower-income students have to contend with both the inequities and costs of standardized tests. 

But colleges have begun to prioritize contextual measures, such as academic performance relative to school districts and teacher recommendations, says Safiya Johnson, a charter school counselor in Chicago and admissions consultant at Solomon Admissions Consulting.

What's changing: Around 70% of U.S. bachelor-degree institutions did not require applicants to submit ACT or SAT scores for fall 2021 and 2022 admissions, according to a study by FairTest. That's up from 38% five years ago.

As of July, 43% of all applicants submitting the Common Application for the upcoming school year included a test score, Common App data shows, down from 77% in the previous cycle.

The biggest declines come among applicants of color (31% did so this season compared to 71% last season), as well as first-generation students (30% down from 69%).

What they're saying: High school counselors are still encouraging students to test and to submit good scores because they believe doing so could increase chances of admission, and because some scholarships and financial aid programs still require them, Bob Schaeffer, executive director of the National Center for Fair & Open Testing, tells Axios.

Despite the system's flaws, a new IPSOS/Axios poll shows that a majority (53%) of Americans still support a national college admissions test system. However, most Black and Hispanic respondents (65% and 60%, respectively) are in favor of abolishing standardized testing, while white and AAPI respondents are split (48% and 46%, respectively).

Flashback: College entrance exams can be traced back to the 1890s — to a eugenics movement and standardized testing systems that focused on questions that resulted in Black and Hispanic students scoring lower than their white peers. 

Yes, but: "The SAT itself is not a racist instrument," Priscilla Rodriguez, vice president of College Readiness Assessments (PSAT & SAT) at The College Board, writes in a statement to Axios. "Every question is rigorously reviewed for evidence of bias, and any question that could favor one group over another is discarded. Further, changes made to the test over its 100-year history have removed all vestiges of an aptitude (or “IQ”) test."  

For lower-income students specifically, test and application costs, including prep, can be another barrier, on top of total education costs.

Depending on the number of tests taken, schools applied to, whether a student opts for books, individual tutoring or months of full prep courses, the price of admission can range dramatically from $25 an hour to tens of thousands of dollars, per student. 

What to watch: The pandemic accelerated the move away from standard testing requirements, but it's unclear how many colleges will make the change permanent, says Schaeffer.

One thing is clear: Student body diversity may already be benefiting. 

The University of California says the end of standardized testing requirements may have encouraged more students to apply. There is a record-high proportion of underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in the incoming class. 

Harvard reports 18% of its incoming 2025 class as identifying as Black, up from 14.8% last year; 13.3% Latino, up from 12.7%; 1.2% as Native American, down from 1.8%; and 0.6% Native Hawaiian, up from 0.4%.

Fewer colleges require admissions tests

But more colleges are doing away with test requirements — especially in light of the pandemic.

Illustrated collage of multiple choice bubbles on a standardized test falling apart. 

Standardized testing is just one hurdle for students of color to clear before school even begins, but more schools are dropping the admission test requirement. Why it matters: A college degree can mean the difference of <a class="gtmContentClick" data-vars-link-text="at least $2.8 million" data-vars-click-url="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/the-college-payoff/" data-vars-content-id="93814106-49a2-40ff-9814-707327eebbeb" data-vars-headline="Fewer colleges require admissions tests" data-vars-event-category="story" data-vars-sub-category="story" data-vars-item="in_content_link" href="https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/the-college-payoff/" target="_blank">at least $2.8 million</a> on average over one lifetime, not to mention inclusion in social and professional networks that can improve career opportunities.

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are seeing a new wave of substantial donations and interest from big-name talent, but the attention has also highlighted questions of cultural identity.

Why it matters: In the past decade, flagging enrollment at HBCUs, founded to offer Black people access to higher education during the slavery era, has led schools to actively recruit non-Black students.

That trend has raised concerns among Black alumni and students who want to make sure the HBCU legacy — and its focus on the Black experience — continues.

The big picture: Most Black students choose HBCUs because they feel a sense of kinship with the colleges' culture and community, said Robert Palmer, a professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies at Howard University. 

"This HBCU is a place that we came to, to be around folks who are like us, our culture, our experiences, who can relate to our issues, and also to have a sense of being uplifted," he said.

But it’s also why “there's a sense that [non-Black students] are invaders,” he noted.

The backstory: Three higher ed schools dedicated to Black students were founded in Pennsylvania and Ohio in the early 1800s. But schools for Black students didn't flourish until after 1890, when a law required states either to show that race was not a factor in admissions or to provide separate land-grant institutions for people of color.

After the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision, Black students had more options and enrolled in non-HBCUs.

The schools had to ensure strong enrollment by marketing themselves differently, per TIME, to cover costs for new facilities, faculty or activities.

By the numbers: Today, the growth of more than 100 HBCUs is concentrated in the South and on the East Coast, alongside over 500 Hispanic-Serving Institutions; roughly 30 Tribal Colleges and Universities; and around 100 Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions.

These schools are not defined by their racial demographics, but rather by their mission to serve disenfranchised students, Palmer said.

State of play: Enrollment at HBCUs over the decades has increasingly included non-Black students, federal data shows. 

In 2018, non-Black students were 24% of enrollment at HBCUs, compared with 15% in 1976.

As HBCUs sought out more non-Black students, a handful — such as West Virginia State University and Bluefield State College — became predominantly white, leading to racial tensions.

What they’re saying: When a traditionally Black space becomes predominantly white, its identity and culture inevitably change, research shows. 

Baigen Seawell, a 2019 West Virginia State University graduate, told Axios that white students typically don’t know the university’s history and why it was necessary to begin with.

On-campus incidents — including the administration's delayed response to George Floyd's death, a white professor's racist rant, and the presence of the controversial right-wing group Turning Point USA — have also made Black students feel unsafe and disillusioned, while Black alumni are worried "we're losing our HBCU," Seawell said.

Black students at WVSU do at times think they’re missing out on the "HBCU experience," said Joey Oden, a WVSU alum who now serves as the university’s vice president of student affairs. 

But there is no one clear definition of the HBCU experience, and HBCUs’ evolution is a reflection of that, he noted.

What matters is that non-Black HBCU students make it their responsibility to lift up their Black peers, Seawell said. "Do your due diligence on what you’re trying to be a part of."

HBCUs' identity crisis

Recruiting non-Black students has raised questions about preserving the schools' focus on the Black experience.

Photo illustration collage of the Howard University entrance gates alongside a student raising their hand

Photo illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios. Photo: Kate Patterson for The Washington Post via Getty Images

Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) are seeing a new wave of substantial donations and interest from big-name talent, but the attention has also highlighted questions of cultural identity.Why it matters: In the past decade, flagging enrollment at HBCUs, founded to offer Black people access to higher education during the slavery era, has led schools to actively recruit non-Black students.

Greek organizations on college campuses have long faced criticism as bastions of exclusion and systemic racism — but America's racial reckoning of 2020 took the conversation to a fever pitch.

Why it matters: The question, 245 years after the founding of the first Greek letter fraternity in the U.S., is whether these predominantly white, once-powerful groups will adapt, continue unchanged, or face more decline and disbandment as the U.S. population becomes less white and less trusting of institutions.

How we got here: The first historically Black fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha was founded in 1906 at Cornell University, 130 years after the first Greek letter fraternity, Phi Beta Kappa. 

Alpha Kappa Alpha, the first historically Black sorority, was created in 1908 at Howard University. 

Black Greek organizations became known as the Divine 9, created to "bring about social change through the development of social programs that would create positive change for Blacks and the country." 

Multicultural fraternities and sororities emerged in the 1980s and 1990s, with colleges becoming more diverse and non-Black students of color looking to make Greek life more inclusive.

Fraternities and sororities are examples of informal benefits of higher education, offering a lifelong network and support among college-educated adults that is exclusive by design. 

Even into this century, male members of traditionally white fraternities have accounted for large majorities of Supreme Court justices, Fortune 500 executives and U.S. senators, as well as a sizeable share of America's presidents, according to research by Alan DeSantis, a professor at the University of Kentucky.

Long after racial exclusion bans fell away, historically white fraternities and sororities have remained overwhelmingly so — with about 96% of members identifying as white, according to research published in 2014 by Mississippi State University.

A movement to abolish Greek life surged across college campuses after the death of George Floyd, although calls to do so had started well before 2020.

By the numbers: Sorority membership has been declining since the 2016-2017 school year, when the National Panhellenic Conference (NPC) reported a record high of 415,609 undergraduate members and 155,711 new members. 

The NPC reported 375,397 undergraduate members during the 2019-2020 school year, approximately a 10% decrease, and 113,095 new members. 

Fraternity membership also appears to be declining. During the 2015-2016 school year, the North American Interfraternity Conference (NIC) reported 384,193 undergraduate members. In 2018-2019, the most recent available data, there were approximately 250,000 members, an NIC spokesperson told Axios. 

Concerns about racial exclusion aren't the only factor. Incidents around hazing and violence were already driving restrictions imposed by universities in recent years.

Between the lines: The Greek system's prestige is still shaped by the culture on individual campuses and by geography.

In Southern, red states, predominantly white fraternities and sororities continue to be powerful and often conservative institutions that drive social life on campus and professional networks after graduation, DeSantis told Axios.

Of note: Harvard University in 2016 effectively banned single-sex clubs, including fraternities and sororities, citing gender discrimination — but in 2020 reversed the ban after a Supreme Court ruling weakened its legal stance.

Penn State suspended fraternities after a 19-year-old student, Timothy Piazza, died due to hazing. 

What they're saying: Jessica Peñaranda, president of the National Multicultural Greek Council, told Axios that historically white fraternities were created "to make sure they fill the seats of government" and "as a function of capitalism."

"We understand racism as a system, and we understand that these organizations are part of that system that helped create elitism and ... more segregation.”

The NPC, in its annual report last November, said it was working to better understand and improve the intersection between race and the "sorority experience."

“… the deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and many more ignited a movement and revealed the need to move from conversation to action to address racism, injustice and inequities within the Panhellenic community."

In June 2020, the NIC announced actions addressing their fraternities' history, which "includes injustices and exclusivity," adding that "[w]e must work to eliminate all forms of racism, hate and intolerance as we work to create a more inclusive community moving forward."

Greek life and the social order

The Greek system's prestige is still shaped by the culture on individual campuses and by geography.

Illustration of a pattern of Greek columns, upside-down and right-side up.

Greek organizations on college campuses have long faced criticism as bastions of exclusion and systemic racism — but America&#x27;s racial reckoning of 2020 took the conversation to a fever pitch.Why it matters: The question, 245 years after the founding of the first Greek letter fraternity in the U.S., is whether these predominantly white, once-powerful groups will adapt, continue unchanged, or face more decline and disbandment as the U.S. population becomes less white and less trusting of institutions.

Race and the environment in America

Most of us take the quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink for granted. But for people of color, the environment is often the cause of chronic, sometimes fatal health issues.

For people of color, the environment is often the cause of chronic, sometimes fatal health issues.

Illustration of a collage with images of the earth and industrial chimneys

Deep Dive: Hard Truths – Environment

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