Three years after the Supreme Court ended race-based affirmative action in college admissions, some of the nation’s most selective universities continue to see sharp shifts in the racial makeup of their freshman classes.
Harvard University, with an acceptance rate of about 4 percent, was the latest to release data this week. The data showed the proportion of Asian American freshmen undergraduates rose to 43 percent this fall, a tick up from 41 percent in last year’s freshman class and 37 percent in 2023 and 2024. .
The percentage of Harvard’s incoming Black students has fallen nearly in half since the Supreme Court decision, according to the data, which was published by the university’s admissions office on Tuesday.
In 2023, Black students made up 18 percent of the freshman class. In 2024, the first year that reflected new admissions procedures, they made up 14 percent. Black students comprise 9.3 percent of this year’s freshman class, a drop of two percentage points from last year.
Hispanic or Latino students make up 11.4 percent of the Class of 2030, about the same as last year’s percentage. Hispanic or Latino students made up 16 percent of incoming freshmen two years ago.
Other highly selective universities, such as Yale, have seen similar shifts, although others, like Princeton and Amherst, saw slight jumps in the percentage of Black students enrolling this year, school data show.
The trends at Harvard and other elite institutions represent a major shift in the types of students gaining access to schools that remain some of the country’s most effective springboards to financial and political power. The shifts are celebrated by conservatives who had argued that race-based affirmative action had disadvantaged those who deserved admission based on merit.
Universities, while adamant they’re complying with the law, have argued that they still are seeking to create diverse classes that look like America. Schools and other supporters of affirmative action have argued that diversity improves education for all students and helps ensure that the nation’s leadership, from Supreme Court justices to chief executives, is representative.
The 2023 Supreme Court decision was based on a lawsuit filed on behalf of Asian American students who complained that the elite university’s admissions policies discriminated against them. Evidence disclosed during the trial in the case revealed that while Asian American applicants had submitted higher test scores, they had consistently received lower personality ratings, a subjective assessment made by admissions officers.
Edward Blum, who heads Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that brought the lawsuit, said in an email that the shifts in demographics at Harvard provide “powerful evidence that Harvard used race as a primary factor in its decisions for decades.”
He also urged Congress to require that universities fully disclose admissions data by race and academic qualification. Under the Trump administration, the Education Department has sought to collect such data, but the effort is currently stalled after some states sued to block it.
Richard D. Kahlenberg, who had testified as an expert for plaintiffs in the case and favors efforts to increase socioeconomic diversity, said the large drop in Black students was unavoidable.
“Harvard’s old model was to give large racial preference to upper middle class Black and Hispanic students,” Dr. Kahlenberg, who heads a program at the Progressive Policy Institute, said in an email. He said the university should do more to open its doors to highly qualified working class students.
Justin Driver, a Yale law professor whose 2025 book focused on the implications of the Supreme Court decision, called Harvard’s enrollment numbers predictable but avoidable. He said universities could use other tools to recruit more diverse classes of students, though he also noted the Trump administration had made that difficult by “peddling distorted interpretations” of the decision.
A spokesman for Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the division that oversees undergraduates, declined to comment Wednesday on demographic changes in enrollment.
Other highly competitive universities saw similar demographic shifts as they changed their admissions processes following the Supreme Court decision.
However, some less selective schools have seen increases in Black and Latino enrollment during the same period.
An analysis last year by the organization Class Action revealed that some state schools received students who might otherwise have attended top-ranked universities.
At Yale University, according to preliminary numbers, Asian Americans make up about 33 percent of the freshman class, a climb from 30 percent last year. Two years ago, Asian Americans were 24 percent of the class.
Black student enrollment is falling at Yale: 10 percent of the Class of 2030 self-reported as Black, down from 12 percent last year and 14 percent two years ago.
The proportion of Hispanic or Latino students has also dropped, to 12 percent this year, from 19 percent two years ago.
It can be hard to compare enrollment data among schools. Not all colleges and universities have reported their numbers yet. More students have stopped reporting their race — about 9 percent of incoming Harvard freshmen declined to say — and students who report multiple races, a growing population, also complicate the findings. While some elite schools have seen striking shifts in the racial makeup of their classes, others have stayed the same.
The demographic information for the Class of 2030 trickling out from other highly selective schools also contains some surprises.
Princeton University, which has touted its socioeconomic diversity and enhanced financial aid packages, released figures showing that Black enrollment rebounded this year to 8.9 percent of the freshman class — roughly the same as it was before the Fair Admissions decision. Last year, Black enrollment was 5 percent.
Asian American students made up 23 percent of the class, down slightly from 24.2 percent before the Fair Admissions decision.
Amherst College saw sharp declines in its Black enrollment in the Class of 2028, the first admitted after the Supreme Court decision. That year, only 3 percent of Amherst’s first-year class was Black. The Amherst Student, the campus newspaper, reported last week that this fall’s Black student enrollment is 9 percent. Hispanic enrollment also increased.
Black enrollment had reached 11 percent at Amherst before the Supreme Court decision.
At Columbia, an Ivy League school that maintained “test optional” policies for the Class of 2030, class demographics remained little changed this year. (It reinstated its test requirement for the coming admissions cycle.)
Black student enrollment increased slightly to 13 percent of Columbia’s incoming class this year, compared with 12 percent last year. Asian and Hispanic student enrollment remained steady at 39 percent and 19 percent, respectively.
The Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling allowed for some narrow consideration of race — if a student chose to write about it in an application essay, for example. But the Trump administration has used a strict interpretation of the ruling in a campaign to end diversity efforts across a broad array of schools.
The federal government sued Harvard in February over access to admissions documents, which the administration said it needs to ensure that Harvard is not discriminating against white applicants. Harvard did not release figures for white enrollment, but federal data showed that about a third of all students were white in 2024, the most recent data available.
Harvard has said in court that it turned over some data, but that government is asking for materials that could identify specific students, such as personal essays. The case is pending in federal court in Boston.
Michael C. Bender contributed reporting.
The post Elite Colleges Enroll Fewer Black Freshmen and More Asian Americans appeared first on New York Times.
