Princeton University and Yale Universityreported declines in the percentage of Asian-American students in their freshman class, the first students selected by the schools after the US Supreme Court said race could no longer be used in making admissions decisions.
At Yale, the share of freshman Asian-American students dropped to 24% from 30% a year ago, while at Princeton it posted a smaller decline, dipping 2 percentage points to about 24%. The share of first-year Black students held steady at both Ivy League schools, accounting for 14% of Yale’s incoming class and 9% of Princeton’s.
The Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 forced US colleges to rethink how to promote diversity in light of the ban on race-based admissions. Several elite colleges, including Yale and Harvard University, said earlier this year they would return to requiring standardized testing for high school seniors, which may also have an effect on diversity in future classes.
In the wake of the Supreme Court decision, colleges have stepped up their efforts recruit students from a wider range of socioeconomic backgrounds. Yale and Princeton highlighted the rising share of first-year students receiving financial aid, as well as a greater push to attract military veterans.
“I am especially excited that the Class of 2028 includes the greatest representation of first-generation and low-income students on record, and that Yale College now enrolls more veterans than it has in many decades,” Jeremiah Quinlan, Yale’s dean of undergraduate admissions and financial aid, said in a statement.
Read more: Yale Brings Back SAT Testing as Best Way to Predict Success
The share of White students in Yale’s first-year class increased to 46% from 42%, while Hispanic and Latino students rose slightly to 19%. At Princeton, the share of Hispanic or Latino students dipped to 9% from 10%.
Students for Fair Admissions, the group that brought the Supreme Court case against Harvard and the University of North Carolina that led to the ruling against affirmative action, had argued that the schools penalized Asian-Americans during the admissions process.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which brought testing back sooner than other universities, said last month that the share of Asian-American students rose to 47% from 41%, while Black students plummeted to 5% from an average of 13% in recent years.
Amherst College, a selective liberal arts school in Massachusetts, also reported a significant drop in the share of students who identify as Black or African American, with the share of first-year students on campus falling to 9% from 19%. Amherst also said the class of 2028 is 10% Latinx, down from 14% a year ago, while the share of White and Asian-American students increased slightly, according to numbers released Wednesday.
Yale’s admissions office made several changes to its selection process after the high court ruling. Application reviewers didn’t have access to self-identified race and/or ethnicity data for applicants, and admissions officers involved in selection didn’t have access to aggregate data on the racial or ethnic composition of the pool of applicants or admitted students, the school said.
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Holy shyt I need to upgrade this thread. Them Asians dropped at Yale and Princeton.
