NATIONAL AFFAIRS WINTER 2013 administrators stated that they "understand how the conclusions of the research paper can be interpreted in ways that reinforce negative ste- reotypes. "They assured students that there are no easy fields of study at Duke and took the position that, insofar as the mammoth problem identified in the study exists, it could easily be solved through student counseling and a few tweaks to the science curriculum. Evidently, business will remain as usual at Duke. Potential affirmative- action recruits with an interest in science and engineering will continue to be told that duke is the school for them they will not be told that their chances of success in their chosen fields would be greater at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nor will they be told that if they switch majors to disciplines like African and African-American Studies, Art History, English, Sociology, and Womens Studies, they are less likely to enjoy lucrative careers or indeed to get jobs at all. In securi- ties law, this would qualify as actionable fraud. In higher education, it is considered forward thinking THE MISSING BLACK LAWYERS The problem of relative performance and credential mismatch does not end with college graduation. It extends to professional schools as well, and is particularly evident at America's law schools Shortly af- ter Cole and Barber's book was published, Mismatch co-author Richard Sander published a study of law schools titled"A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools. " His findings were simi- lar. Outside of historically black colleges and universities, up and down the law-school hierarchy, the average African-American student had an academic index - a combination of gPa and LSaT score-more than two standard deviations below that of his average white classmate. Indeed, at some law schools, there was no overlap between the entering credentials of African-American students and those of white students (Sander did not study Hispanic students). These gaps in entering creden- tials affect student performance: Sander's research demonstrated that more than half of African-American law students had first-year GPAs in the bottom Io% of their classes. Even critics of Sander's ultimate conclu- sions agreed that these findings were both true and troubling Only slightly more controversial was Sander's finding that this effect was almost entirely the result of affirmative action. When African- American and white law students with similar entering credentialsNational Affairs · Winter 2013 86 administrators stated that they “understand how the conclusions of the research paper can be interpreted in ways that reinforce negative ste￾reotypes.” They assured students that there are no easy fields of study at Duke and took the position that, insofar as the mammoth problem identified in the study exists, it could easily be solved through student counseling and a few tweaks to the science curriculum. Evidently, business will remain as usual at Duke. Potential affirmative￾action recruits with an interest in science and engineering will continue to be told that Duke is the school for them. They will not be told that their chances of success in their chosen fields would be greater at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Nor will they be told that if they switch majors to disciplines like African and African-American Studies, Art History, English, Sociology, and Women’s Studies, they are less likely to enjoy lucrative careers or indeed to get jobs at all. In securi￾ties law, this would qualify as actionable fraud. In higher education, it is considered forward thinking. The Missing Black Law yers The problem of relative performance and credential mismatch does not end with college graduation. It extends to professional schools as well, and is particularly evident at America’s law schools. Shortly af￾ter Cole and Barber’s book was published, Mismatch co-author Richard Sander published a study of law schools titled “A Systemic Analysis of Affirmative Action in American Law Schools.” His findings were simi￾lar. Outside of historically black colleges and universities, up and down the law-school hierarchy, the average African-American student had an academic index—a combination of GPA and LSAT score—more than two standard deviations below that of his average white classmate. Indeed, at some law schools, there was no overlap between the entering credentials of African-American students and those of white students (Sander did not study Hispanic students). These gaps in entering creden￾tials affect student performance: Sander’s research demonstrated that more than half of African-American law students had first-year GPAs in the bottom 10% of their classes. Even critics of Sander’s ultimate conclu￾sions agreed that these findings were both true and troubling. Only slightly more controversial was Sander’s finding that this effect was almost entirely the result of affirmative action. When African￾American and white law students with similar entering credentials