Do most selective colleges try to be diverse in individual departments?

I’m not sure what you mean. As a example, you want to take a French course at Harvard College. The professor will teach the course as is his/her want to all the students-whatever their ethnic or racial background . Harvard admits only students they think can handle the work load. The undergrad. population is very diverse, however, except for that equalizer.

Well, I read somewhere that law schools are severely lacking in nonwhite applicants.

Generally, in the admissions process at a selective college, the admissions committee can not predict where in their programs that an applicant might end up. Some universities require applications to a specifc part or branch of the school, some applications are for general admission to the school. As an example, my daughter applied to The North Carolina State University and was required to apply to admission to a specific school within the University, in this case, the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences. Engineering was a different application, Liberal Arts was a different application and what they called “First year college” was a different application.

Other places required only one application with declaration of a “tentative” major or field of study.

I don’t think an admissions committee can slice and dice the applicants so that they know they will have 14.5% Asian in Romance Languages or 32% African American in pre-law. It’s just not that precise.

SRM