James Tyler Chavez University of Texas at San Antonio

 Access to higher education  Specifically minorities attempting to gain admittance to college and the discrimination they face.  Studies have been done and progressive policies such as the open admission policy that the University of New York instituted in the 70s and 80s have been used to prevent racial discrimination in college admittance.  Currently the problem with minority admittance to college has been reduced but it still present. Another problem arising from this result however is the idea that minorities are now receiving better treatment than white American students attempting to gain admission.

 What are the racial discriminations that minorities have faced in the past?  Has there been a significant effort to fix these problems?  Do the improved admittance policies for minorities negatively affect the chances for non minorities to gain admittance?

 Based on what has been observed since the mid 20 th century, there has been a vast improvement in minority admittance opportunities. On the other hand though these improvements may have had the unintended effect of making admittance opportunities lessen for non minorities. This potentially leads to a feeling of favoritism for minorities making it harder for non minorities to gain admittance and essentially just reversing their roles.  I believe that the improvements for minorities has inversely affected the ability of non minorities to gain admittance to American colleges.

 My research was conducted using studies from the GSS website provided in class and independent research and readings found online. From this research I compared and analyzed the results and came to several different conclusions for each research question posed.

 Through my research I have learned that 71.4% of people, that answered a survey on whether or not they believe the chance that blacks get to college ahead of whites, believe that blacks do have a better chance of gaining admittance to American colleges. (Table #1)  I also learned that in the case of illegal immigrants being entitled to a college education, most of the participants in the survey believed that illegal immigrants should not have the right to attend college in America. (Table # 2)  It seems as though while most Americans feel the changes to minority admittance policy have been for the better, many also feel that it makes it harder for non minorities to gain admittance as an unintended consequence. Also most Americans feel that illegal immigrants should not have the right to attend college because they in fact came into the country unlawfully.

Dataset: General Social Surveys, ­2006 [Cumulative File] Table #1 Variable colaff : CHANCE BLACKS GET TO COLLEGE AHEAD OF WHITES Literal Question 532. A. What do you think the chances are these days that a white person won't get admitted to a college or university program while an equally or less qualified black person gets admitted instead? Would you say: very likely, somewhat likely, or not likely. Descriptive Text This variable appeared as part of a split ballot experiment in 1994, and appeared on form 1. See also COLAFFY. See Appendix P. Values CategoriesN NW 1 VERY LIKELY % 2 SOMEWHAT LIKELY % 3 NOT LIKELY % 0 NAP DK NA 6 8 Summary Statistics Valid cases 713 Missing cases This variable is numeric Information displayed in this table was obtained from the GSS website

Dataset: General Social Surveys, [Cumulative File] Table #2 Variable colaffy : CHANCE WHITES EXCLUDED FROM COLLEGE OVER BLACKS Literal Question 533. A. What do you think the chances are these days that a white person won't get admitted to a college or university program while a less qualified black person gets admitted instead? Would you say: very likely, somewhat likely, or not likely. Descriptive Text This variable appeared as part of a split ballot experiment in 1994, and appeared on form 2. See also COLAFF. See Appendix P. ValuesCategoriesNNW 1VERY LIKELY % 2SOMEWHAT LIKELY % 3NOT LIKELY % 0NAP DK3531 9NA76 Summary Statistics Valid cases675 Missing cases50345 This variable is numeric Information displayed in this table was obtained from the GSS website

Dataset: General Social Surveys, [Cumulative File] Table #3 Variable undoccol : ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ACCESS TO PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES? PreQuestion Text A.What about "undocumented aliens," that is, those who have immigrated to this country illegally? Literal Question 2. Should they be entitled to attend public universities at the same costs as other students, or not? ValuesCategoriesNNW 1YES, ENTITLED % 2NO, NOT ENTITLED % 0NAP DK5851 9NA99 Summary Statistics Valid cases1407 Missing cases49613 This variable is numeric Information displayed in this table was obtained from the GSS website

 So after researching, recording, and analyzing data for my report I have learned that vast strides have been made in improving the chances of minorities gaining admittance to college.  I have also learned that while these improvements have helped minorities in general, many non minority Americans feel that they have become what the minorities used to be in terms of how easy it is to go to college. They feel that because there is so much focus on minorities, their ability to gain college admission has been challenged because of all the new and improved pathways to success offered to minorities.  Finally I learned that in general most Americans feel that minorities that have entered the country illegally should not have the right to attend college.

 In the journey to improve the discriminatory conditions that minorities used to face when applying for college, we have created a whole new set of problems that need to be addressed.  While doing research on the GSS website I noticed that there was not that many studies done on these particular focus areas. Several studies had to do with similar topics but only a few were directly related.  Currently the focus is still on creating a more friendly admittance process for minorities. The rising problem of these improvements causing setbacks for non minority students is beginning to be addressed. It is the goal of almost all major universities to be equal and diverse when dealing with their admittance policies but it is a fine line that they must walk and it must constantly evolve.

 Baker, T. and Velez, W. (1996). Access to and Opportunity in Postsecondary Education in the United States. Sociology of Education, Extra Issue 1996,  Lewis, A. C. (2004). Minority college access. The Education Digest, 69(8), Retrieved from  Dickson, Lisa M Does ending affirmative action in college admissions lower the percent of minority students applying to college? Economics of education review 25, (1):  GSS Studies:  CHANCE BLACKS GET TO COLLEGE AHEAD OF WHITES  CHANCE WHITES EXCLUDED FROM COLLEGE OVER BLACKS  ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS ACCESS TO PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES?