Three years after the Supreme Court ended race‑based affirmative action in college admissions, some of the nation’s most selective universities continue to see sharp shifts in the racial makeup of their freshman classes.
Harvard University, with an acceptance rate of about 4 percent, was the latest to release data this week. The data showed the proportion of Asian American freshmen undergraduates rose to 43 percent this fall, a tick up from 41 percent in last year’s freshman class and 37 percent in 2023 and 2024.
The percentage of Harvard’s incoming Black students has fallen nearly in half since the Supreme Court decision, according to the data, which was published by the university’s admissions office on Tuesday.
In 2023, Black students made up 18 percent of the freshman class. In 2024, the first year that reflected new admissions procedures, they made up 14 percent. Black students comprise 9.3 percent of this year’s freshman class, a drop of two percentage points from last year.
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