I’ve been trying to follow the aftermath of the Supreme Court’s overturning of affirmative action as it plays out at the country’s top colleges and universities. When MIT released its enrollment data last month, the outcome was in line with what both the plaintiffs and the defendants in the case had expected. The number of black students dropped by about 8% and the number of Asian students jumped by 7% compared to the previous year.
But the results from other schools have been a real mix. At Amherst the enrollment of black students dropped from 11% to just 3% and at Brown it went from 15% to 9%, both in keeping with what happened at MIT. But the change at Harvard was more modest. Black enrollment went from 18% to 14%. Most surprising of all, black enrollment at Yale and Princeton saw no change at all. The numbers this year were nearly identical to the ones the previous year.
How…
