The percentage of minority enrollment in colleges has skyrocketed during the last couple of decades.  According to a 2003 report issued by the American Council on Education, the major coordinating body for all the nation's higher education institutions, total minority enrollment at the nation's colleges and universities surged by 122 percent in the last 20 years, up from 2 million to 4.3 million.  Many ignorant people feel that minorities, Blacks, Hispanics and Asians in particular, only get accepted into certain colleges and universities with the help of affirmative action and the schools’ requirement to meet a minority acceptance quota. Because colleges and universities are making concerted efforts to increase their minority enrollment, there is the perception that qualified white students are being displaced by less qualified minorities.

With the increased enrollment has come increased speculation about qualifications of minority students who are accepted by high ranking colleges and universities. A prime example of this is a case heard by the Supreme Court in 2003 involving the University of Michigan and admission preferences given to minorities in the school’s overall efforts to increase minority enrollment.

On a personal level, I feel that I have been subjected to similar speculation from my peers – due in large part to my race – about my prospects of being accepted into high-ranking colleges and universities.  On occasion I’ve heard classmates question the likelihood of my being accepted into schools with competitive admission processes. Although trying to say it in a joking manner, they actually felt strongly about the opinions they openly expressed. While their comments didn’t overly offend me, it is upsetting to hear that my fellow students think that the only way I will get into the same colleges as they might is because of minority admissions quotas. Completely unaware of my academic and extracurricular qualifications, my peers’ ignorance is ridiculous. 

Coming from a predominately white school, it’s almost like I have to prove myself everyday that I can excel academically and be an attractive prospective student to competitive schools like the University of Virginia and Virginia Tech.  Not that UVA and Virginia Tech are schools that I particularly want to attend, but I would get satisfaction out of knowing that my acceptance was based on my qualifications more so than for my race.

In the late 1990s many white students began challenging affirmative action in college admissions, and schools have launched new programs geared toward recruiting, keeping, and graduating minority students. Nationally, colleges and universities are now focusing more attention on minority students than at any other time since the end of segregation.  While no two students are the same, university admissions policies still require that all students meet certain standards.  Schools only accept students who they feel have the potential to succeed in their academic setting.  For white students to think that they were not offered admission in favor of an under-qualified minority student is illogical and unjustified.  Not only would accepting a student on the sole basis of his or her race be demoralizing to that particular student, it would reflect poorly on the school if the student’s academic performance did not justify his or her acceptance.