{"id":195787,"date":"2024-12-20T09:28:25","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T14:28:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/?post_type=fact-sheet&p=195787"},"modified":"2025-05-05T12:46:49","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T16:46:49","slug":"topic-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions","status":"publish","type":"fact-sheet","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/fact-sheet\/topic-affirmative-action-in-college-admissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Topic: Affirmative action in college admissions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Students walk through the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The school’s race-conscious admissions program was recently at the center of a U.S. Supreme Court case. (Erin Clark\/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n
Legislative Semester Topic Briefs<\/a><\/div>
Affirmative Action in College Admissions<\/a>Freedom of the Press<\/a>Government Aid to Immigrants in the U.S. Illegally<\/a>Gun Ownership and Regulation<\/a>Legalizing Marijuana<\/a>Prayer in Schools<\/a>Why Public Opinion Matters and How To Measure It<\/a><\/div><\/i> Download PDF<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n

Background<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Affirmative action can be traced to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. It is an effort to increase opportunities for racial and ethnic groups that face barriers advancing in the workplace and other institutions, including higher education.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1960s, colleges and universities began to set up admissions policies that gave disadvantaged groups more opportunities. There have been legal challenges through the years, and major Supreme Court decisions have narrowed the scope of these policies. Most recently, the court\u2019s ruling in two cases in 2023 severely limited the use of affirmative action in college admissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public opinion polling says \u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2023, Pew Research Center surveyed U.S. adults on this topic. This was just before the Supreme Court announced historic decisions on the policies at The University of North Carolina and Harvard College<\/a>. It\u2019s possible that views on this topic could have changed since those decisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The survey did not use the term \u201caffirmative action,\u201d which can be viewed as biased. We asked people whether they approved or disapproved of \u201cselective colleges and universities taking race and ethnicity into account in admissions decisions in order to increase the racial and ethnic diversity at the school.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n