According to a new study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, the Fall 2024 semester brought a significant decline in 18-year-old student enrollment at colleges and universities in the United States. Across all institutions, first-year enrollment dropped by 5 percent from the prior Fall 2023 semester. When broken down by students’ home states, only Delaware, Alabama, Louisiana, and the District of Columbia experienced increases in first-year enrollment this academic year.
Overall, White first-year students experienced the largest decline in enrollment, with a decrease of 10 percent from the prior year. In comparison, Black first-year student enrollment decreased by 8.2 percent, Hispanic first-year enrollment dropped by 2.1 percent, Asian firt-year enrollment dropped by 5.7 percent, and multiracial first-year enrollment decreased by 8.3 percent.
However, if we examine the country’s most selective institutions, the numbers look very different. Among highly selective institutions, Black first-year student enrollment dropped by a staggering 16.9 percent this year, the sharpest drop of any major racial group. This was the first admissions cycle since the Supreme Court ended the use of race-sensitive admissions at colleges and universities. In contrast, White first-year student enrollment at these highly selective institutions only decreased by 5 percent. Over the past two years, Black first-year student enrollment at the country’s top universities has decreased by 18.4 percent.
Black first-year student enrollment also had a steep decline at the country’s least selective institutions, with a decrease of 13.4 percent from Fall 2023 and an overall decrease of 20.3 percent over the past two years. This year, Black first-year enrollment dropped by 5.6 percent at very competitive institutions and by 8.2 percent at competitive institutions.
