When Harvard University hits a milestone, the world notices. That was the case this week when the school announced that for the first time, its incoming freshman class is majority minority.

Harvard’s class of 2021 speaks to where the United States is headed. By 2020, more than half of children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group, the Census Bureau reports. The overall population will hit that mark midcentury.

So how does reflecting that diversity play out in university admissions? Well, for current challenges to the role of race in admissions, see our first story.

For many selective schools, the priority is building a community that demands excellence – the expression of which, however, comes in myriad forms, not just a certain GPA. No question, that can be heartbreaking for top-achieving applicants who don’t get admitted to their top pick.

But Lee Bollinger, who led the University of Michigan through two affirmative action challenges, offers some useful history. From 19^th -century land-grant schools to the GI Bill, he wrote in 2007, public universities have shown that diversity was “vital for establishing a cohesive, truly national society – one in which rising generations learn to overcome the biases they absorb as children while also appreciating the unique talents their colleagues bring to any equation. Only education can get us there.”