Administrators, faculty members and students are reviewing the school's curriculum, while admissions guidelines have been reorganized to include a second high school teacher recommendation.

But against Jews there were, Oren told Chatterbox, "admissions guidelines and understandings, 'informal quotas' that had the same net effect," and these "were not relaxed until the early '60s."

To get back on track, the most prestigious schools are relaxing some of the admissions guidelines they imposed at the height of their popularity in the 1990's.

Although many of the qualifications are similar, each academy operates under its own admissions guidelines.

Under the university's admissions guidelines, a black or Hispanic applicant with the same grades and scores as the three plaintiffs would have had a better chance, statistically, of being admitted to the Ann Arbor campus.

The school no longer has records on DeWitt, but Eliott Salow, the assistant principal for guidance, said the school's admissions guidelines, which mandate "satisfactory academic standing," are set by the state.

According to Wesleyan's admissions guidelines, the single most important factor in considering applicants is the high school academic record.

And finally, there were dozens of general agreements never officially sanctioned by law, including admissions guidelines, maintaining a nontuition policy for California residents other than "incidental costs," and beginning a policy of charging tuition for out-of-state students.

Leaders of the faculty union said they feared that CUNY was bending its admissions guidelines to fill seats, and taking in unprepared students whom it could no longer serve well, and that the numbers did not reveal whether minority students were being squeezed out of the senior colleges.