This story was reported and written by Radio IQ.
Late last summer the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the practice of considering race in the college admissions process, known for decades as Affirmative Action. The 2024 school year, or graduating class of 2028, is the first where Virginia colleges will be bound by the ruling and the University of Virginia is the first to make admissions data under the new regime available.
The University of Virginia says their Black freshman population decreased by about 1% while their Latino population increased by about 2%.
The change in admissions comes after U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts wrote a student “must be treated based on his or her experiences as an individual — not on the basis of race,” during the university admissions process.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology was among the first colleges in the 2024 admissions cycle to publish their race data. Black students dropped by 8% and Latinos by 4% there.
Last fall UVA said they’d no longer make an applicant’s race available to admissions reviewers. They instead added an essay section where an applicant could discuss the topic. Data was then collected from those who will be attending in the fall.
The school also took steps to stop using legacy status during the process. A state law banning legacy consideration goes into effect next year, but UVA obscured that data from reviewers this cycle as well. Such admissions were down a bit less than 1 percent this year over 2023.
Other notable stats from UVA’s reporting includes an increase in Pell grant recipients, up 14% from 5 years ago, and a 9% increase over the same time for students below the federal poverty line. About 20% are first-generation college students, about 12% are a gender or sexual minority.
UVA spokesperson Bethanie Glover said the freshmen class of 2028 may be the most diverse in the school’s history.
“Recruitment work for the class of 2028 was done with a goal of welcoming a class that is culturally, socioeconomically and experientially diverse,” Glover said.
She also pointed to a new initiative, the All-Virginia program, that sought to recruit from parts of Virginia that had higher poverty rates and less regular applicants to the college.
"Students who may have believed college wasn't an option were encouraged to apply thanks to this program," Glover added.
Admissions data from the rest of Virginia's colleges is expected as part of a state-wide census in November.
