Black student enrollment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has significantly declined following the Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action.
According to an NBC News report, the number of Black and Latino students admitted to MIT dropped in the first class formed after the Supreme Court deemed race-conscious admissions unconstitutional.
MIT’s admissions department confirmed the decline on Wednesday, revealing that the Black student population is decreasing rapidly. Data shows that only about 5% of MIT’s incoming class of 2028 is Black, a sharp decline from the 13% average in recent years. Latino students make up 11% of the class of 2028, down from a 15% average in previous years. The incoming class consists of 1,102 students.
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Stu Schmill, MIT’s dean of admissions, attributed the decline to the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision, which ended the use of race as a factor in college admissions. “We expected that this would result in fewer students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups enrolling at MIT,” he said. “That’s what has happened.”
While the Black student population is declining, the enrollment of white and Asian American students is on the rise, with some underrepresented groups seeing zero admissions. Previously, Black, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander students made up about 25% of MIT’s undergraduate classes. That number has now dropped to approximately 16% for the incoming class of 2028.
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This is the first time a selective university has released admission statistics following the Supreme Court’s ruling, which halted affirmative action programs at the University of North Carolina and Harvard, and has since impacted other universities. The Court ruled that such programs violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution and were therefore unlawful.
Although the ruling prohibits the use of race as a factor in admissions, it does not prevent prospective students from sharing their racial or ethnic backgrounds in application materials, such as essays, personal statements, or through their extracurricular activities.
Before the ruling, Schmill predicted a potential decline in student body diversity in a blog post. MIT, along with several other institutions, submitted an amicus brief to the Court last year in support of race-conscious admissions. “If the Court rules in a way that constrains how universities may compose their communities, our commitment to the pursuit of diversity that advances MIT’s education will not waver, but our ability to achieve it will change — potentially dramatically,” he wrote.
In response to the ruling, MIT has expanded its recruitment and financial aid initiatives, with a focus on low-income students from all backgrounds. While the university no longer considers race in admissions, Schmill noted that MIT seeks diversity through various factors such as prospective fields of study, extracurricular activities, accomplishments, and economic, geographic, and educational backgrounds.
