Dumbing Down the Ivy League

The big news yesterday was that Princeton University only accepted 129 white males for its class of 2025. That is, out of a class of 1498 students. By the numbers, 68% of the class is identified as people of color, while white females outnumber white males 54% to 46%.

For some inexplicable reason Princeton did not say what percentage of the people of color were Asian, Hispanic or African American. Powerline had the story first (via Maggie’s Farm)

Naturally, Princeton has a constitutional right to admit whomever it wishes for whatever reason it wishes. And yet, if it chooses to dumb down the entering class in order to meet diversity quotas, its reputation as a pre-eminent academic institution will suffer. 

And, dare we mention, what would happen if the white male alumni go on a giving strike, and remove Princeton from their wills? Go woke and go broke... as they say. 

Today, the Daily Mail has done some more reporting. It has discovered that other Ivy League schools are jumping on the diversity bandwagon. 

Only Harvard has offered a breakdown of the percentages. 

Harvard gave a more detailed breakdown of its intake for the class of 2025; 18 percent identifying as African American/Black, 27.2 percent as Asian American, 13.3 percent as Latinx, 1.2 percent as Native American, and 0.6 percent as Native Hawaiian. 

It means 40 percent of the class is white - the largest percentage by far. 

Harvard said its intake is on par with the demographics of the US population. 

That’s it-- the entering class must look like America. Naturally, the universities do not tell us about the credentials of those who are admitted. One suspects that the current practice continues to discriminate against Asian Americans, holding them to a much higher standard than it holds other students.

By some estimates an African American student can be admitted with SAT scores that are 400 points lower than those required for an Asian student.

Of course, that would mean that the colleges still respect the results of standardized tests. Apparently, they have chosen not to do so. The result will be, these supposedly great schools are going to see the quality of instruction decline and the value of their diplomas diminish. It's yet another nail in the coffin of American meritocracy.