At MIT, Black and Latino enrollment drops sharply after affirmative action ban

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's incoming class of 2028 saw a precipitous drop-off in the percentage of Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander students, the university announced Wednesday. It is MIT's first undergraduate class to be admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last year banning affirmative action, and MIT is the first major university to release statistics on the composition of its freshman class since the high court's ruling.

For the incoming class of 2028, about 16% of students are Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander, compared with a baseline of about 25% of undergraduate students in recent years, the announcement said.

The comparison to the class of 2027 was also dramatic. The percentage of Black students enrolled dropped to 5% from 15%, and the percentage of Hispanic and Latino students dropped to 11...