College Admissions Data Shows End of Affirmative Action Had Mixed Impact
Summary from the AllSides News Team
This is the first school year since the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action is unconstitutional. Admissions data shows some, but not all, colleges and universities enrolled fewer black students.
The Details: Harvard released its application data on Wednesday, which showed that the percent of students who identify as black had dropped from 18% last year to 14% for its Class of 2028. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) experienced a sharper drop in racial diversity, with black, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander students declining from a 25% average in recent years to 16% for the incoming class. Yale's data showed a different picture, with black enrollment steady, white enrollment increasing, and Asian enrollment declining. A report from Vox (Left bias) said the impact of the court decision was similarly "muted" at many other schools. Meanwhile, some historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) saw increases in applications for this year.
For Context: In June 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that admissions policies which consider race violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
How the Media Covered It: Vox wrote that "so far, there isn't much good news in the data for students of color." On the other hand, Breitbart (Right) called the decline in black enrollment at Harvard "slight." The Washington Free Beacon (Right) took a more negative tone toward schools, attributing the mixed impacts of the new legal precedent to school administrators who had "plotted ways to circumvent" it.
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Center
MIT: Newest students less diverse due to Supreme Court affirmative action decision
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) said Wednesday that its incoming freshman class will be less diverse, pinning the shift on the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling last summer.
Stu Schmill, dean of admissions at MIT, told MIT News that Black, Hispanic, and/or Native American and Pacific Islander students make up only 16 percent of the class of 2028.
From the Left
The impact of the Supreme Court’s reversal of affirmative action, explained in one chart
New college admissions data for the first group of admitted students since the US Supreme Court sharply limited affirmative action last year suggests that the decision has had a negative impact on Black enrollment at some universities.
While some colleges have seen major fluctuations in the enrollment of students of color in the class of 2028, including notable declines among Black and African American students, the impact has appeared more muted elsewhere. Many universities have yet to release their data, however, so a more clear picture may emerge throughout the fall.
From the Right
At Some Elite Universities, Affirmative Action Ruling Leaves Little Impact on Racial Makeup, Prompting Scrutiny
'It looks to me like Yale is deliberately sending a message that it doesn't intend to comply with the law,' expert tells Free Beacon In the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmative action ban, several elite universities released breakdowns of their incoming freshman classes that showed virtually no change in racial composition. Experts say that's likely because the schools are sidestepping federal law. Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania all argued as the case unfolded that they would see a substantial decline in...
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