Top Universities Including MIT, Tufts And UVA Record Drop In Black Student Enrollment After Supreme Court Ruling

Universities across the country have recorded a drop in Black freshmen students . Data from Amherst College showed that the number of Black students decreased from 11% in 2023 to 3% this year, while the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recorded a drop from 15% to 5%. MIT noted lower enrollment for “members of historically under-represented racial and ethnic groups” last week. It was the first university to release statistics since the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in June, according to The Guardian .

Tufts University and the University of Virginia have also shared a decrease in Black students who enrolled as freshmen. Some administrators believe it’s a result of the Supreme Court ruling.

“As a consequence of the Supreme Court’s decision, the incoming class is not as racially diverse as recent classes have been,” Matthew L. McGann, the admissions dean at Amherst College’s admissions, told The New York Times , per Black Entreprise . “Other institutions have seen a similar impact, and all colleges and universities are evaluating the outcomes of this first admission cycle under the new legal standard.”

Others note how the drop can affect students’ on-campus experience.

“On a small campus, the drop in demographic population can change the experience for those students,” Amherst’s President Michael A. Elliott told The New York Times. “One of the unfortunate circumstances of the ruling is that it might diminish the sense of belonging that a student feels here. And we do not want that to occur.”

As a response, the University of Virginia has created partnerships with public schools in low-income communities to recruit a more diverse class of students.

“It is a fine example of how universities can be creative, consistent with the Constitution, to avoid the plummeting enrollment of Black students that some universities have already witnessed,” Yale Law professor Justin Drive told The New York Times.

Data from Harvard University and the University of North Carolina have not yet released their admissions data.