This is the first admissions cycle completed after the Supreme Court banned the consideration of race in college and university admissions in June 2023. Most of the nation’s leading colleges and universities have been tight-lipped on the racial makeup of their entering classes as it has become increasingly difficult to achieve the level of racial diversity that has existed for several years. No major colleges or universities that we know of have released statistics on the percentage of Black and White applicants who were admitted.
But the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has announced that just 5 percent of its entering class is Black. This is down from an average of 13 percent Black over the last four admissions cycles. Asian Americans make up 47 percent of the entering class and Hispanics are 11 percent of all first-year students.
While the admissions statistics are discouraging, we applaud MIT for disclosing the information so that colleges and universities across the nation will see the urgent need to come up with a strategic plan to address the issue.
In order to increase diversity at our nation’s top colleges, new approaches will be necessary. Preferences for students from low-income families can be legally instituted. The end of legacy preferences can be reduced or eliminated, and increased recruiting at predominantly Black high schools may produce more diversified entering classes in the future.
