Black and Latino enrollment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology decreased in the first class that followed the Supreme Court’s ruling that college admissions based on race were unconstitutional.
The university’s first-year class profile, which was made public by the admissions office on Wednesday, revealed a significant decline in the proportion of Black students. Black students make up about 5% of MIT’s entering class of 2028, a sharp decline from the previous average of 13%. The percentage of Latino students in the class of 2028 is 11%, down from the previous average of 15%. There are 1,102 students in the entering class overall.
The decrease was ascribed by Stu Schmill, dean of admissions at MIT, to the high court’s 2023 ruling eliminating racial discrimination in the admissions process.
Regarding the decision, Schmill stated, “We predicted that as a result, fewer students from historically marginalized racial and ethnic backgrounds would apply to MIT.” “That’s what has taken place.”
According to the profile, all other student populations have decreased, some even going extinct, while those of Asian Americans and White students have grown.
25% of MIT’s undergraduate enrollment in recent years has been made up of Black, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander students, according to the university. For the incoming class of 2028, that percentage has dropped to roughly 16 percent. Since the decision, this profile represents the first time a selective university has made available statistics about its freshman class.
Affirmative action policies at Harvard and the University of North Carolina were abolished by the high court’s decision, which had significant ramifications for other public universities. The Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution was broken, the court declared, making the affirmative action policies implemented by the schools illegal.
While the verdict prohibits educational institutions from considering a student’s ethnicity when making admissions decisions, prospective students are still able to disclose their racial or ethnic background in extracurricular activities and application materials like essays and personal statements.
An NBC News request for comment was not immediately answered by representatives of MIT’s admissions office.
In a blog article last year, Schmill foresaw the decline in diversity among students, even before the verdict. The university was one of several academic institutions that supported race-conscious admissions by submitting an amicus brief to the court.
“Our dedication to pursuing diversity that enhances MIT education will not falter, but if the Court rules in a way that limits how schools can create their communities, our capacity to do it may change significantly,” he wrote at the time.
Following the ruling, MIT declared that the school has increased the scope of its financial aid and recruitment campaigns, giving low-income applicants from all backgrounds priority.
The university seeks diversity through “Future research and study topics, extracurricular pursuits and achievements, and background in terms of finances, location, and education,” according to Schmill, who stated that the new rule prohibits the university from considering race in admissions decisions.