California Schools Get Around an Affirmative Action Ban

For all its popularity among college applicants, the University of California never made much of an impression on Amber Brown. She attended math and science camp each summer, graduated with honors, and last year accepted a full academic scholarship to Jackson State University, a historically black college in Mississippi. UC “just wasn’t on my list,” says the college freshman. “But if they are looking to diversify, I’m going to take advantage of that.”

Brown is vying for one of 25 spots this summer at UC Berkeley’s Haas School of Business reserved for underclassmen at historically black colleges. The new program is the university system’s latest attempt to increase the diversity of its applicant pool—and ultimately its student body. The idea is that if UC recruits at black schools, it will pull more African-Americans into its MBA programs without violating a state ban on racial preferences in college admissions.