Preferential Admissions for White People: A Photo Essay

Advantages for a small number of Black students has been fiercely debated for decades... but how about the hundreds of spots reserved for athletes in sports that hardly any non-White people play?

Elite schools sure do have a lot of sports teams. And their athletic programs sure do have a lot of sports that young people learn to play at country clubs or prep schools or are played primarily in the racially un-diverse cold weather areas of the country. Who is truly able to compete for these treasured spots at elite colleges and universities?

Princeton Men’s Lightweight Rowing Team

Harvard Women’s Cross Country Team

Williams Women’s Nordic Ski Team

Cornell Men’s Ice Hockey

Dartmouth Sailing Team

Yale Women’s Rowing

Georgetown Men’s Golf Team

Duke Women’s Field Hockey Team

Brown Men’s Water Polo Team

Middlebury Alpine Women’s Ski Team

UNC Chapel Hill Men’s Lacrosse

University of Pennsylvania Women’s Swim Team

Stanford Women’s Lacrosse Team

Columbia Men’s Cross Country

A note on Ivy League sports:

The eight schools comprising the Ivy League field 34 varsity sports teams on average. Harvard leads with 42 varsity teams. By some estimates, varsity athletes comprise 15- 20% of the undergraduate student body at Harvard. Almost all of the Ivy League schools have men’s and women’s teams in sports played primarily by white athletes: golf, sailing, heavyweight and lightweight crew, squash, lacrosse, swimming & diving, cross-country, ice hockey and field hockey (women’s only). Ivy League schools also have teams in equestrian, water polo, nordic and alpine skiing, archery, rugby and polo (the kind with horses, that is. Thank you Cornell!).

The same trend holds at elite liberal arts colleges. Williams, ranked as the #1 liberal arts college by U.S. News, fields 30 sports teams, even though it has just over 2000 students, less than 1/3rd the size of Harvard

As a point of comparison, the schools in the Atlantic Coast Conference, one of the premier athletic conferences in the country, field 25 teams on average.