My colleague Max Cavitch (who also writes at Stressing English), recently sent me a link to the US News and World Report rankings of universities based on ethnic and economic diversity. There are lots of interesting details in the lists, and I thought I might try to look at what factors are most significant in shaping a school’s diversity — whether the regional economic and ethnic diversity of the state, or some other factors, like school endowments. I pulled state economic and ethnic data from the 2009 and 2010 U.S. Census Bureau data, and endowment information from the National Association of College and Business Officers.
First, the economic data:
