Test scores and high-school ranks for black admittees in general are much lower compared to the other groups. The gaps among racial and ethnic groups are smallest for high-school ranks. UVA frequently rejects many white, Hispanic, and Asian applicants with higher test scores and high- school ranks compared to black admittees. The relative odds of admissions to UVA show a strong degree of preference given to blacks over whites and, to a lesser extent, Hispanics over whites. The relative odds of admission for Hispanic over white applicants, controlling for residency and legacy status, and test scores and high-school rank, were 4.85 to 1 in 1999.
All results summarized here are statistically significant.
This study represents further analysis of admission practices at the University of Virginia, originally reported in Preferences in Virginia Higher Education. The report used data from the 1996 admissions process. At the time, UVA officials asserted that our data did not always match theirs. A further examination revealed that there were a number of cases that UVA somehow inadvertently dropped from the files we were given. This report is partly concerned about remedying this problem and reporting accurate results.