How Asian American Enrollment Is Reshaping Harvard After the End of Affirmative Action

Harvard’s student body is beginning to look different these days. And it isn’t by accident. Recent data reveals a clear trend. Asian American enrollment is on the up, while the number of Black and Hispanic students is falling. The Times of India called it Harvard’s “diversity in flux,” a change in the makeup of our universities. Now some are sending out an alarm.

The Harvard College admissions data for the class of 2029 showed a mix of 11.5 percent Black students, 11 percent Hispanic, and 41 percent Asian American. In the class of 2028, those numbers were 14 percent Black, 16 percent Hispanic, and 37 percent Asian American.

These results come after many years of legal and public wrangling over whether race should be considered in college admissions at all. Harvard has long defended the use of race as one of many factors used to insure a diverse campus. But critics claimed that practice penalized Asian American applicants unfairly, a point that became the basis of a lawsuit that eventually reached the Supreme Court, putting Black and Hispanic student enrollment at the center of a national conversation about fairness and opportunity, as previously noted by The Hill. That decision put a stop to those practices, the results of which are becoming apparent today.

“Amidst several seismic shifts in higher education admissions over the past few years, as well as the effects of Covid, the Class of 2029 enters Harvard as worthy successors to the generations of students who’ve come before them,” Harvard Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons wrote in a statement reported by The Harvard Crimson.

Still, many fear that without the ability to consider race at all, universities will struggle to maintain student bodies that reflect the racial and ethnic diversity of the country. Some are looking into alternative, race-neutral ways to achieve that balance, like giving more weight to socioeconomic background, life experiences, or even geographic diversity.

Whether those approaches will work remains to be seen. One thing is clear. Harvard’s post–affirmative action era reflects a clear reshaping of what diversity looks like in higher education today.

Photo by Manu Ros/Unsplash