MIT's incoming class of 2028, the first chosen after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision banning affirmative action, is 47 percent Asian, 37 percent white, 11 percent Hispanic and 5 percent black.
The class is "outstanding," but lacks the "broad racial and ethnic diversity" of the past several decades, said MIT President Sally Kornbluth in an announcement.
The change was most dramatic for Asian students, whose numbers went way up, and black students, whose numbers went way down, report Anemona Hartocollis and Stephanie Saul in the New York Times. The number of white students fell slightly.
The class of 2027 was 40 percent Asian, 38 percent white, 16 percent Hispanic and 15 percent black. (Students can declare more than one race, so the numbers don't add up to 100.)
“Every student admitted to the class of 2028 at M.I.T. will know that they were accepted only based upon their outstanding academic and extracurricular achievements, not the color of their skin,” responded Edward Blum, the founder of Students for Fair Admissions, the organization that successfully sued to end race-conscious admissions.
Stuart Schmill, dean of admissions, said MIT will do more to reach out to students in black and Hispanic communities. However, he added, “Black and Hispanic students are less likely to attend high school where calculus is taught, where physics is taught, where computer science is taught.”
Many predicted universities would "subvert the prohibition against considering race by looking at students’ essays and extracurricular activities for clues as to their racial and ethnic background," write Hartocollis and Saul. "The Supreme Court said it was permissible for applicants to write about their race if it was integral to a life experience, like overcoming discrimination," and some colleges encouraged students to write about their identities.
MIT apparently played it straight.
Black and Hispanic students who just missed being admitted to MIT may have a better chance of success in science and engineering majors at their second-choice universities, writes Gail Heriot, a law professor who serves on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
A growing percentage of high achieving students are Asian American, Fordham's Michael Petrilli wrote last year. "Our study finds that Asian students are so high achieving that even those in the lowest-socioeconomic-status group often equal or outperform higher-SES students of other racial and ethnic groups."
We should learn from their success, not feel threatened by it -- or try to keep them out of elite institutions, he wrote.
Are Asian students "more likely to participate in extracurricular activities, sign up for more challenging classes, or take part in academic tutoring, clubs, or competitions?" If so, "how could smart policies expand those opportunities to students from other communities?"
I'd bet Asian-American students are more likely to do the homework and show up in class every day.
Want more Black enrollment in selective colleges? Why not open STEM magnet K-12 schools in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Mbarara, Uganda, and Gabarone, Botswana?
What fraction of MIT "Asian" enrollment is Asian-American and what fraction attends on a student visa from China, Taiwan, S. Korea, or Japan?
I suspect that China does for Math talent what they do for gymnastics and platform diving: identify talent early and train it. I tutored a Korean immigrant kid from 3rd through 6th grade. He sat in on a calculus class in the summer between 6th and 7th grade and earned a B. In the summer between 7th and 8th grade, he sat in on Calc. II. His parents then homeschooled him, which meant that they went to work and he went up to UH and took Math classes. He took the GRE (Math specialty) before he turned…
"Our study finds that Asian students are so high achieving that even those in the lowest-socioeconomic-status group often equal or outperform higher-SES students of other racial and ethnic groups."
It's amazing that the idea that poverty hurts academic excellence applies to every group except Asians.
As was pointed out during the SFFA vs Harvard, the black and Hispanic students who did not get into Harvard are probably capable of succeeding at Georgia Tech, Worchester Polytechnic, or Rensselaer. Those black and Hispanic students who were not admitted at MIT will probably being average or above average students at other universities rather than being overmatch at MIT.