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Diving certificate:
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According to End of season report from Common App published on Thursday. The increase in applications from minority groups continues a trend that has been ongoing for a decade.
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Common App enables students to apply to over 1,000 member universities through the online platform. The number of students applying to the platform’s member universities and The number of applicants identifying as a racial or ethnic minority increased 11%, compared to 3% for non-minority groups, the report said. Growth was fastest among American Indian or Alaska Native, Latinx and Black or African American applicants.
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According to the data, applications from the same ethnic group to less selective schools also increased sharply. All ethnic groups continued to be more likely to apply to less selective institutions, with the exception of Asian students, who were more likely to apply to institutions defined as “most selective” or “more selective.”
Diving insight:
In two U.S. Supreme Court cases decided in 2023 against Harvard University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the advocacy group Students for Fair Admissions alleged that race-conscious admissions processes discriminated against Asian American applicants.
The court’s decision to end a longstanding practice of college admissions designed to diversify incoming classes raised concerns among many educators that it would discourage black, Latino and other underrepresented student groups from applying to higher education institutions, especially the more competitive ones.
As the ruling is likely to increase pressure on elementary and secondary schools to develop a college culture and strengthen support for minority students seeking post-secondary education, the K-12 sector tense for the impact of the decision. The Ministry of Education hoped to prevent possible negative consequences of the decision and urged students not to let the ruling deter them from pursuing their “educational potential”.
However, according to Common App data, there has been no decline in applications from minorities.
The researchers “observe no significant changes from previous historical trends,” the latest report says of the 2023-24 application season – the cycle immediately following the Supreme Court decision. “The only exception is an apparent leveling of applications from Asian applicants to the most selective members,” the report continues.
In June, Common App took place in a separate report that the percentage of Asian, Black, Latino, and white students mentioning at least one racial or ethnic phrase in their Common App essays decreased in 2023-24. Overall, however, no significant changes were found in students’ application behavior, such as the way they self-identify their racial or ethnic identity. Rather, more significant changes occurred in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic and the changes to test-optional policies it prompted at many colleges, the researchers said.
Although Common App data suggests the ruling has not deterred students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups from applying to college, it remains to be seen how the ruling will affect admissions, especially at highly selective universities. Just this week, officials at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology blamed the Supreme Court ruling for the lower diversity in their incoming class.
