An analysis of inclusivity rates
The United States is known to be the country where cultures are mixed together leading to a multi-ethnic environment that does not have resemblance elsewhere. This is in line with the fact that the country stands as a symbol of opportunities, reasons for which many decide to move there to begin the “American Dream”. Moreover, one should not forget that the US is a country which was literally created by and from migrants.
Differences as a value
Are all these differences well integrated within the American system or are they kept separated?
Let’s answer to this question by looking at one of the most important fields, meaning education.
- American Universities and College incredibly value diversity, sharing the idea that having a diverse environment allows students to develop multiple perspectives thanks to the interaction with others.
- Students can actually, and are encouraged to so, leverage diversity in their admission process: they are asked to consider all the aspects of their identity when choosing a college, trying to understand in which environment they could contribute the most. If follows that differences are seen as a value that colleges are looking for.
- Data of the US Department of Education tells us that if we pick two random students at a 4 years college, the chance of finding one of them having different racial or ethnic background and a different citizenship than American is close to 70%.
- USNews.com helps us to better understand the ethnicity diversity distribution in US colleges by using a formula which produces a diversity index that goes from 0 to 1. This means that the closer to 1, the more a certain school is diverse in its student population. On more than 100 universities, just a few are under 0.70.
In conclusion, from the available statistics, it really seems that US colleges are among the most inclusive in the world: what are you waiting for? Make your difference being your greatest strength!