APPENDIX TO OPINION OF JUSTICE POWELLHarvard College Admissions Program
For the past 30 years, Harvard College has received each year applications for admission that greatly exceed the number of places in the freshman class. The number of applicants who are deemed to be not !uali"ed is comparatively small. The vast ma#ority of applicants demonstrate through test scores, high school records and teachers$ recommendations that they have the academic ability to do ade!uate wor% at Harvard, and perhaps to do it with distinction. Faced with the dilemma of choosing among a large number of !uali"ed candidates, the Committee on &dmissions could use the single criterion of scholarly excellence and attempt to determine who among the candidates were li%ely to perform best academically. 'ut for the past 30 years, the Committee on &dmissions has never adopted this approach. The belief has been that, if scholarly excellence were the sole or even predominant criterion, Harvard College would lose a great deal of its vitality and intellectual excellence, and that the !uality of the educational experience o(ered to all students would su(er. Final )eport of *. +. 'ender, Chairman of the &dmission and cholarship Committee and -ean of &dmissions andFinancial &id, pp. 0 et se!. /Cambridge, 120. Conse!uently, after selecting those students whose intellectual potential will seem extraordinary to the faculty 44 perhaps 50 or so out of an entering class of over ,00 44 the Committee see%s 44variety in ma%ing its choices. This has seemed important . . . in part because it addsa critical ingredient to the e(ectiveness of the educational experience 6in Harvard College7. . . .
The efectiveness o our students' educational experience has seemedto the Committee to be afected as importantly by a wide variety o interests, talents, backgrounds and career goals as it is by a ne aculty and our libraries, laboratories and housing arrangements
.-ean of &dmissions Fred 8. 9limp, Final )eport to the Faculty of &rts and ciences, 25 :;cial )egister of Harvard <niversity =o. 5, 13, 005 /12> /emphasis supplied. The belief that diversity adds an essential ingredient to the educational process has long been a tenet of Harvard College admissions. Fifteen or twenty years ago, however, diversity meant students from California, =ew ?or%, and @assachusettsA city dwellers and farm boysA violinists, painters and football playersA biologists, historians and classicistsA potential stoc%bro%ers, academics and politicians. The result was that very few ethnic or racial minorities attended Harvard College. Bn recent years, Harvard College has expanded the concept of diversity to include students from disadvantaged economic, racial and ethnic groups. Harvard College now recruits not only Californians or 8ouisianans, but also blac%s and Chicanos and other minority students. Contemporary conditions in the <nited tates mean that, if Harvard College is to continue to o(er a "rst4rate education to its students, minorityrepresentation in the undergraduate body cannot be ignored by the Committee on &dmissions.