In mid-October, the Swarthmore College Institutional Effectiveness, Research & Assessment (IERA) released its summary of Fall 2024 enrollment. The data breaks the college’s first-year class and student body down by resident status, race, ethnicity, and gender.
The report is notable as the Fall 2024 semester marks the arrival of the first class of Swarthmore students who were admitted after the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling against the use of race-based affirmative action programs in college admissions. The decision banned colleges from using race as a factor in admitting students, and many observers and experts have raised questions about how racial diversity at colleges will be impacted. In September, The Phoenix reported on upticks in the percentage of first generation college students and/or receiving Pell Grants. At the time, in an interview with The Phoenix, Vice President and Dean of Admissions Jim Bock ’90 attributed the increases to the admissions department’s increased engagement and collaboration with community-based organizations and problems with the U.S. Department of Education’s Free Application for Federal Student Aid that impacted applicants’ ability to receive financial aid at many schools, but not Swarthmore.
The IERA’s recent release adds more information about Swarthmore’s admissions and racial diversity in the era after affirmative action.
The numbers reveal that students from underrepresented racial demographic groups make up a smaller portion of Swarthmore’s class of 2028 than in the college’s classes of 2027 or 2026. Specifically, Black students make up 8% of the class of 2028, as compared to an average of 10% of the previous two first-year classes. Hispanic students make up 16.4% of the class of ’28, a decline from 18.1% for the class of ’27. However, the class of 2026 had a smaller percentage of 13.4%. Overall, students coming from underrepresented groups, a category that encompasses students who are Black, Latino, American Indian, or Pacific Islander, make up 25.2% of the first-year class of 2026, 27.5% of the first-year class of 2027, and 25.1% of the class of 2028. An even larger drop was seen in the percentage of each class made up of all students of color, from 55.1% for the past two year average, to 52.5% in 2028. A table of these figures can be found at the end of this article for easier understanding.
These numbers show clear declines in the racial diversity of Swarthmore’s first class accepted after the banning of racial consideration in college admissions. On the Supreme Court’s decision, Bock said, “We worry that overall this decision can have a chilling effect on where students apply and who opts out of applying to selective colleges. This is why our recruitment efforts are so important in ensuring we are reaching out to historically underrepresented populations and encouraging them to apply — and why creating a welcoming campus during events like Discover Swarthmore is so crucial.”
In a statement following the Supreme Court decision last year, President Val Smith said, “While we will comply with the law, let me be clear: We will not allow today’s decision to erode our steadfast commitment to diversity and inclusion.” Still, many experts were skeptical of elite colleges’ ability to do so, and have been proven right by many colleges’ announcements of dropping Black enrollment in their classes of 2028. These schools include the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (15% to 5%), Amherst College (11% to 3%), and Tufts University (7.3% to 4.7%). A tracker of top colleges and universities last updated in early September shows the percentage of Black students in their first-year classes is down at around 80% of institutions and the percentage of Hispanic students is down at around 60%.
The tracker shows that the Swarthmore class of 2028’s decline in Black students is less severe than the majority of top higher education institutions, while its decline in Hispanic students is more towards the middle of the pack. The IERA’s release also showed that the percentage of the student body as a whole from underrepresented groups increased from last fall to this fall from 24.7% to 25.4%, meaning that other years’ higher levels of diversity have ensured that this year’s drop has not yet made the student body less diverse overall.
In correspondence with The Phoenix, Bock commented on Swarthmore’s ability to retain this level of diversity, saying, “Swarthmore was able to maintain diversity in our incoming class because recruiting and enrolling students from diverse backgrounds has been a longtime practice of our office and institution. We were not spurred by the SCOTUS decision to start brand new outreach efforts. Rather, we expanded upon the hard work our team has already done — for many years.” He continued, “Though we do have the benefit of having two full-time deans dedicated to access and equity as well as diversity and outreach, it is the work of our entire office to focus on diversity. And we don’t just mean racial diversity. We also think about economic backgrounds, academic interests, geographic locations, and abilities, among others. I do believe that our long-term sustained effort in this area helped us maintain racial diversity despite the challenges brought upon by the SCOTUS ruling.”
Locally, data on Haverford’s Class of 2028 reported a 1.1% drop in the share of Black students in the class, and a 1.3% drop in the share of Hispanic students from last year’s class. And, at the University of Pennsylvania, there was a drop from 25% to 23% for incoming students coming from underrepresented groups, which encompasses students who are Black, Latino, and American Indian and Pacific Islander.
The ruling notably left open the possibility for colleges to incorporate how race has impacted applicants’ lives and experiences into their admissions decisions. Bock acknowledged this, and connected it back to the admissions department’s work to identify certain desired qualities for applicants, including generosity to others, intellectual curiosity and enthusiasm for learning, and civic engagement. “Though we cannot consider their race status alone in the admission process, we can consider the impact race had on their lived experiences and how those embody the qualities we look for when making admissions decisions,” he said.
Bock emphasized that this opportunity isn’t enough, as evidenced by the drops in the racial diversity of the incoming classes. “Even given this opportunity to consider lived experience, we are concerned not just for Swarthmore, but for higher education writ large. There is educational value in living and learning in a diverse community.”
When asked about whether the drops already seen could represent the beginning of a downward trend in racial diversity, Bock emphasized that because the department no longer has access to information on applicant race until enrollment decisions have been made, racial diversity numbers will continue to fluctuate, and that it’s too early to tell if a trend has started. But, he continued, “based on what we are hearing and reading, there has been a direct impact at many schools.”
The release of these numbers so close to the election also begs the question of how a change in both federal and state officeholders will impact the already changing college admissions landscape. On this question, Bock added “Every election affects the admissions landscape and the field of higher education. From direct federal funding for higher education to immigration laws that impact international and undocumented students, we feel the implications of our elections in the work that we do. It is always our job to comply with the law and make adjustments to policies based on federal and state requirements — all while upholding the mission and values of the College. We encourage students to research what candidates’ policies are on education, and of course, to vote.”
These updates at Swarthmore come during a time of shifts in the higher education world. The data on the class of 2028 will be factored into debates about racial diversity on campus, socioeconomic diversity on campus, and the use of legacy admissions.
