The Massachusetts Institute of Technology released its post- affirmative action demographics for its newest class, showing the racialized admissions system was artificially holding back Asian students .
The new numbers showed drops in black, Hispanic, and American Indian students, while the percentage of white students stayed relatively the same. However, the proportion of Asian students in the incoming class skyrocketed. MIT's announcement comes after some universities have refused to release the demographic data on their new classes.
"Comparing MIT’s admission statistics to last year’s, it is hard to escape the conclusion that MIT was engaging in unlawful discrimination," Adam Kissel, Heritage Foundation visiting fellow at the Center for Education Policy, told the Washington Examiner. "The DEI admissions party is over."
The class of 2028 is the first undergraduate class admitted after the Supreme Court last year banned the use of affirmative action at universities, where some students were admitted based on race rather than merit.
Edward Blum, who founded Students for Fair Admissions, the group that led the charge in overturning affirmative action, applauded the new class numbers as a return to meritocracy, saying , “Every student admitted to the class of 2028 at MIT will know that they were accepted only based upon their outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, not the color of their skin,” according to the New York Times.
MIT President Sally Kornbluth, however, did not seem pleased with the new class makeup.
“The class is, as always, outstanding across multiple dimensions,” Kornbluth said in the class announcement. “... What it does not bring, as a consequence of last year’s Supreme Court decision, is the same degree of broad racial and ethnic diversity that the MIT community has worked together to achieve over the past several decades.”
Overall, about 16% of the new class is made up of black, Hispanic, and American Indian students, a drop from the 25% those students made up in recent classes. Compared to the class of 2027, the class immediately before the newest one, black student enrollment dropped from 15% to 5%, and Hispanic students dropped from 16% to 11%. White students dropped slightly, from 38% to 37%.
However, Asian students jumped from 40% last year to 47% in the class of 2028. The numbers do not equal 100% because students can claim more than one race, according to MIT.
"MIT becomes the first major university to announce the ethnic composition of its incoming undergraduate class," Duke University economics professor Timur Kuran posted on X. "The figures confirm that standards were being lowered for certain ethnicities and mainly at the expense of Asian Americans."
The demographic changes in the class of 2028 bear out evidence used in the Supreme Court case, which came about after SFFA sued Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. SFFA provided evidence showing that black students were being admitted at a much higher rate despite having lower SAT scores, and those slots were being taken from Asian students, who, on average, are the highest-performing demographic in education.
Peter Arcidiacono, another Duke economist who was an expert witness for SFFA, said the numbers were consistent with what he predicted during the case, adding, "From the looks of it, MIT basically just took race out of the equation."
MIT was quick to defend admissions of previous classes, explaining that the new numbers do not mean that the school was admitting unqualified students in the past and that they are also not connected to MIT reinstituting standardized testing, such as the SAT, for applicants two years ago. Many schools decided to do away with standardized testing, claiming the metric was racist, but have recently been moving back toward it after realizing that test scores are predictive of success and achievement at school.
Many make a similar argument about achievement and affirmative action, arguing that elite schools with more strenuous course requirements were admitting students who were not equipped to succeed there, setting them up for failure. Removing affirmative action and reinstating standardized testing, proponents say, allows each student to be properly placed in schools that will allow them the best chance for success.
Because the MIT numbers are consistent with the evidence provided in the Supreme Court case, other schools may face scrutiny if their incoming classes do not reflect similar numbers —or they could face accusations that they have found ways to side-step the affirmative action ban.
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
When the case came down last year, some schools, such as Harvard , decided to defy the ban by heavily suggesting applicants talk about their race in their essays, allowing admissions boards to take race into consideration without making it an official part of the admissions package.
"To be clear, there is no quick and easy 'hack' to solve for racial inequality," MIT Dean of Admissions Stu Schmill said upon the release of the new demographic data. "But MIT does not shrink from hard problems in science or in society, and we will do what we can, within the bounds of the law, to continue to deliver an exceptionally rigorous and inclusive educational experience that our current, former, and future students can be proud of."
Most Popular
Comments / 0