Joining other institutions, Harvard College today disclosed the demographic characteristics of the class of 2028—the first admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June 2023 that outlawed consideration of race in admissions reviews.
Of the 1,647 undergraduates who just matriculated who chose to identify a race or ethnicity, according to the announcement from Faculty of Arts and Sciences Dean Hopi Hoekstra, 14 percent identified as African American or black, down from 18 percent in the class of 2027 (these percentages all pertain only to domestic matriculants—84 percent of those enrolled). Asian American students made up 37 percent of the class, unchanged from the prior year, and the proportion of Hispanic or Latino students rose to 16 percent from 14 percent of the total. One percent of students identified as Native American, down 1 percentage point, and fewer than 1 percent identified as Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (no change).
The College data did not provide a figure for students who identified as white. Arithmetically, the class of 2028 figure would appear to be 31 percent, up from 28 percent of the class of 2027. But all the percentages are somewhat inexact: 8 percent of class members did not identify a race or identity, twice last year’s percentage.
Some analyses of possible admissions outcomes issued during the years when the suits against Harvard and the University of North Carolina were litigated suggested that admissions of black students might decline, and those of white and Asian American students might increase. The changes in Harvard’s class of 2028 appear relatively modest compared to some of the direst forecasts—and not significantly different from the outcomes at Princeton and Yale (for the Tigers, in aggregate a less than 2 percentage-point decline in black and Hispanic students’ share of the new class; for the Elis, no change in African American students’ share of the new class, and a percentage-point increase in the Hispanic/Latino cohort).
It is impossible to know whether the fierce criticisms of Claudine Gay, Harvard’s first black president, during the peak applications season last fall influenced prospective applicants’ preferences when they decided where to seek admission; her resignation, on January 2, fell one day after the deadline for regular applications. In the wake of the Supreme Court ruling, Inside Higher Education reports, applications to historically black colleges and universities also soared last year.
Among other features of the Crimson class disclosed today, Harvard announced that 16 percent of students are international (up from 15.2 percent of the class of 2027), 20.1 percent are first-generation college attendees, and 20.6 percent qualified for federal Pell grants.
In response to the Supreme Court ruling, which overturned Harvard admissions practices that the Court had previously upheld in its 1978 Bakke ruling, the College made sure that admissions staff could not access individual applicants’ self-reported information, or aggregated data, on race or ethnicity, and introduced essay prompts on which applicants could write about their life and personal experiences (such as,“ How will the life experiences that shape who you are today enable you to contribute to Harvard?”). It has also joined a consortium of 30 universities recruiting in rural areas. But it has not, so far as is known, joined other initiatives to seek a diverse applicant pool that some institutions are pursuing as they adapt to the new legal environment, nor addressed more broadly the challenges created by the 2023 rulings (both described here).
In a statement accompanying her release of the data, Dean Hoekstra said:
As the University’s leadership asserted when the Court’s decision was announced, the change in law did not change our fundamental commitments. We know that diversity measured on multiple axes drives academic excellence and shapes the transformational educational environment of Harvard College for our students. We will continue to work tirelessly to pull down barriers to a Harvard education, and, in compliance with the law, to deepen even further our commitment to broad-based diversity. As we nurture students as both scholars and leaders for a complex world, one that requires their innovation and creativity, we owe them nothing less.
Separately, William R. Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a statement, “Our 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’s perspective.”
