Fall Freshman Class First In UT History Without White Majority

By alcalde in Blog on September 14, 2010 at 3:11 pm

For the first time in The University of Texas’ 127-year history, fewer than half of the students in the entering freshman class are white.

A preliminary report from the University’s Office of Information Management and Analysis shows that 47.6 percent of first-time freshmen listed their ethnicity as white. The University’s overall white population, when factoring graduate, pharmacy, doctoral, and law students, is 52.1 percent.

The state of Texas is 45.1 percent white, 38.8 percent Hispanic, 11.5 percent African American, and 4.6 percent “other,” according to the latest estimates from the state demographer’s office.

There were few seismic changes in UT’s demographic data. Overall, the total number of students at the University increased by 238 students to 51,223.

Last fall, 51.1 percent of the entering class was white. This year, 23.1 percent of entering freshmen are Hispanic, versus 20.8 percent in last year’s class. A slightly higher percentage of this class is African-American, and a slightly smaller percentage is Asian.

Part of variance is due to a new reporting category for 2010 — two or more not Hispanic or black —registered 2.6 percent of the class.

Almost exactly half of the 14,583 students who were offered admission enrolled (7,275). A full 76 percent of the class were in the top 10 percent of their high school class.

Full a full summary of the report, see the University’s press release here.

Photo by Valerie Cook.