In the wake of the Supreme Court's affirmative action ban, several elite universities released breakdowns of their incoming freshman classes that showed virtually no change in racial composition. Experts say that's likely because the schools are sidestepping federal law.
Harvard University, Yale University, Princeton University, Duke University, and the University of Pennsylvania all argued as the case unfolded that they would see a substantial decline in black and Hispanic enrollment without affirmative action. Now, roughly one year after the Supreme Court outlawed the practice, their latest enrollment numbers show a slight drop—or no drop at all.
For University of San Francisco law professor Gail Heriot, who sits on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, that's likely because the schools are continuing to factor race into their admissions decisions in apparent violation of the law. Heriot singled out Yale, noting that the Ivy League school saw a 6-percent drop in Asian students in its 2028 class and no change in black enrollment. Prior to the Supreme Court case, SFFA v. Harvard, Yale faced a federal investigation and lawsuit for discriminating against Asian-American students.
"It looks to me like Yale is deliberately sending a message that it doesn’t intend to comply with the law," Heriot told the Washington Free Beacon. "The fact that the Asian-American numbers have gone down so drastically at Yale strikes me as a red flag."
Since the Supreme Court decision came down, observers have wondered how much of a difference it would make, particularly as top college administrators plotted ways to circumvent it. The latest numbers provide evidence for those concerns at a time of increased scrutiny for higher education institutions.
Princeton and Duke saw similar declines in Asian students—6 and 2 percent, respectively—in their 2028 classes. At the same time, black and Hispanic student enrollment fell by less than 1 percent at both schools.
Penn, meanwhile, cited a marginal 2-percent decrease in black and Hispanic students, commonly referred to as "historically underrepresented minorities in higher education." It did not release the percentage of its incoming class that identifies as Asian. At Harvard, the proportion of black freshmen declined from 18 percent to 14 percent, while the proportion of Asian students remained the same.
The lead defendant in the Supreme Court case, Harvard, was accused by activist group Students for Fair Admissions of discriminating against Asian students to give preference to other minority students. It said the Supreme Court's decision would prompt a 33-percent drop in black and Hispanic students, far below the one it reported on Wednesday. Other schools—including Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Penn—signed onto an amicus brief that echoed Harvard's assessment.
Attorney Dan Morenoff, the executive director of the American Civil Rights Project, said the latest numbers show elite universities either lied to the Court or broke the law to avoid the drastic effects they predicted.
"Either what they said to the Court was factually wrong or what they said was right and, therefore, they are not engaging in race-neutral admissions policies now," Morenoff told the Free Beacon. "I don't think there is room for a third possibility." The second alternative, Morenoff added, means the schools "are doing something they know is affirmatively illegal."
The numbers from Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Penn stand in contrast to admissions data from Brown University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At both schools, the share of black students dropped significantly, from 15 to 9 percent at Brown and 16 to 5 percent at MIT. The percentage of Asian students, meanwhile, increased at Brown and MIT by 4 percent and 7 percent, respectively.
Last August, one month after the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action in admissions, the Biden-Harris administration released guidance arguing that the ruling "does not require institutions to ignore race." It encouraged schools to redouble "efforts to recruit and retain talented students from underserved communities, including those with large numbers of students of color," rather than show explicit preference for students who identify as minorities on their applications. Harvard reported engaging in this type of outreach following the ruling.
Schools such as Princeton and Harvard also ask applicants to answer essay questions that allude to race and diversity. Experts say that practice may account for the stable racial figures seen in the wake of the Supreme Court ruling. Still, Mountain States Legal Foundation general counsel William Trachman told the Free Beacon that schools could face scrutiny should they use those questions as a "proxy for race."
"It is one thing to say we give race-blind preference to overcoming adversity, it is another thing to use this as a proxy for race," he said.
Yale, Princeton, Duke, and Penn did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement, Harvard admissions dean William R. Fitzsimmons said the school's "community is strongest when we bring together students from different backgrounds, experiences, and beliefs. And our community excels when those with varied perspectives come together—inside and outside of the classroom—around a common challenge by seeing it through another perspective."
Other elite schools that signed the amicus brief supporting Harvard, including Columbia University, Dartmouth University, Cornell University, and Johns Hopkins University, are yet to release their latest demographic data.