A correction on Princeton’s admissions figures

Last night, I wrote that slightly less than 9 percent of those admitted to Princeton’s class of 2025 are white male Americans. However, a closer reading of Princeton’s announcement indicates that the actual percentage is slightly less than 14 percent.

I based the 9 percent figure on the residual, after eliminating the 14 percent of admittees who are international students and the 68 percent who are “persons of color” from 100 percent — hence 18 percent white Americans — and then dividing roughly in half to account for males.

However, Princeton’s 68 percent figure for “persons of color” relates to domestic admittees — 68 percent of that group (which is 86 percent of the total, not 100 percent) are non-white. So the actual percentage of white American admittees is around 28 percent, and a little less than half that total are white American males.

The number of whites admitted is still shockingly small and strongly suggestive of racial discrimination, in my view. However, the difference between the numbers I cited and what I now take to be the actual numbers is material.

I regret the error and have corrected the original post.

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