<p>Remember that the Ivy leagues are located closer geographically and overlap more (strengths etc.) than when you broaden to include Stanford, MIT and Caltech - so although differences in ethnicity in the applicant pool is expected (and also can be due to URM outreach, application fee waivers etc.) among Ivy leagues, I would expect the Ivies to be more similar in ethnic makeup than between some state school or lower tier private and the Ivies.</p>
<p>Clearly the ethnic makeup of Stanford (and Columbia for that matter) is unusual compared to typical US universities. At Stanford (see <a href=“Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications”>Stanford Common Data Set | University Communications) their enrollment of white students is a little over 1/2 the national percentage (see census data at <a href=“http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html”>http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/00000.html</a>), and even if you assume only students from California apply (and California has a lower percentage of Whites than most states, and more than double the percentage of Asians) it is a significantly lower percentage than expected. On the other hand Asian’s represent 22% of Stanford’s US (non-international) students but only 14% of California and 5% of the US population. Applicant pool differences are surely involved in part, but other differences clearly exist but I doubt that Universities would publish their numbers on ethnic bias (pro/con) in their admissions info to make it easier for prospective students to select which Universities they have a better chance of getting in.</p>