For the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court struck down more than 40 years of legal precedent that had said colleges can consider applicants’ race, Harvard on Thursday released admissions data for the accepted class of 2028. Remarkably, recent legal and political events do not appear to have affected the demand for a Harvard degree or the economic makeup of those students offered a seat.
According to data provided by the College, Harvard admitted 1,937 applicants from a pool of more than 54,000 students, so its acceptance rate is now 3.6%. That’s up, nominally, from 3.4% last year.
These figures give the public its first glimpse behind the ivy of how this country’s oldest college plans to build a class in a post-affirmative action world. Still, Harvard is not releasing racial or ethnic demographic data of students to whom it has offered admissions, citing potential litigation.
“Based on advice from counsel, admissions readers will not be accessing applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity data or aggregated data about applicants’ self-reported race or ethnicity at any time until the admissions process has concluded,” Harvard spokesperson Jonathan Palumbo said in a statement.
Since the Supreme Court’s decision in June 2023, Harvard said it reworked its holistic, widely replicated admissions process, making sure that officers do not have access to applicants’ race or even their application essay answers about race and ethnicity.
In his majority decision, Chief Justice John Roberts, a graduate of Harvard and Harvard Law, wrote that nothing in the ruling prohibits universities from considering “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life, be it through discrimination, inspiration, or otherwise.”
That means the Court allows applicants to mention their racial identity and experiences in admissions essays or interviews and that colleges may take those narratives it into account when making decisions.
This application season Harvard included new essay questions asking students to talk about, for example, how their life experiences have influenced who they are and how they might contribute to the campus community.
The admitted class come from all 50 states and 94 countries. Fifty-three percent of admitted students are women; 47% are men.
First-generation students make up 20% of the class, mirroring previous years.
That disappointed Natasha Warikoo, a sociologist at Tufts University and author of the book “Is Affirmative Action Fair?”.
Warikoo said she’d like to see Harvard’s incoming class better reflect the U.S. population’s racial and economic composition.
Warikoo, who has long studied and researched race in admissions, said it is “disconcerting” but “not surprising” to see this fresh data without racial demographic breakdowns.
“I assumed that we wouldn’t find out until the recruiting season is over so that there’s no worry about getting sued by saying, ‘Well, you recruited these groups harder than these groups,’” Warikoo said. “But I am waiting with bated breath to see what the outcome of admissions this year looks like at Harvard and all selective colleges that used to practice race-conscious admissions and can’t anymore.”
Anthony Jack, a sociologist at Boston University and author of the book “The Privileged Poor,” said it’s troubling not to have access to racial and ethnic data.
“A lot of the inequalities that we were starting to pay attention to are now hidden,” Jack said. “We never really knew how many students [were] Black from Caribbean or African descent versus Black who can trace their legacy back to slavery.”
Jack said he’s encouraged that Harvard has continued to recruit low-income, underrepresented students. To build this class, Harvard said its admissions officers traveled to 150 cities in the United States and around the world to recruit applicants, joining a new consortium of 30 public and private colleges working to raise awareness in rural communities.
Jack suggested Harvard and other selective colleges “double down” on first-generation and rural students through geographically targeted outreach.
“Place-based initiatives will allow us to recruit not just economically disadvantaged students but also those who come from racially segregated communities because of the history of exclusion and housing in America,” Jack said. “We know how segregated America’s cities are. We know which schools support students from minority groups.”
Before Thursday’s data release, experts had openly questioned whether Harvard’s reputation and brand would be undermined by the Court’s decision and the way administrators, including former president Claudine Gay, handled the University’s response to the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel.
For now, recent events don’t appear to have affected the decisions of high school seniors to seek an education at a certain college in Cambridge.
“High-school seniors are much more likely paying attention to financial aid,” Warikoo said.
According to Harvard, nearly a quarter of students attend without paying anything and the average parent contribution for students who received financial aid this academic year was $13,000.
For students who don’t receive need-based aid, the total cost of attendance is set to increase 4.3% to $82,866 in the fall.
