Dear colleagues,
We have just welcomed to campus a new class of 1647 undergraduate students who, like in previous years, manifest excellence on many dimensions. While every class is different in its makeup, this year there are some notable demographic shifts, as was shared today.
This is the first undergraduate class whose admission was impacted by the Supreme Court decision striking down the ability of colleges and universities to consider race and ethnicity as one factor among many in the admissions process. Because of that decision, the data on applicant race and ethnicity were unavailable to the Admissions Office until the admissions process had been completed for all students, including those on the waitlist. Today’s report provides a first glimpse of the impact of the Court’s decision, though we anticipate its full impact on the class composition at Harvard College may not be felt for several more admissions cycles.
Of the students who reported their race on their application, the number of students identifying as African American or Black decreased 4 percentage points (from 18% to 14%) from last year’s class, and the number of students identifying as Native American decreased from 2% to 1%. By contrast, Class of 2028 students identifying as Hispanic or Latino increased 2 percentage points (from 14% to 16%). We saw no change in the percentage of students identifying as Asian American (37%), or Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander (<1%).
The Admissions Office at Harvard College continues to be committed to the search for exceptional talent and academic promise from across our country and around the world. Last fall, the Admissions team increased recruitment travel programs and outreach to school counselors and community-based organizations and further expanded outreach to rural communities in the South and Midwest, advancing our core goal of encouraging a diverse group of promising students, regardless of background, to consider Harvard.
Speaking with the first-year students at Convocation last week, the results of those efforts were crystal clear. Our first-year students represent all 50 states, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They come from 91 countries – from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. They hail from small town Iowa and from skyscraper-filled Manhattan. Their interests, hopes, beliefs, and dreams are as varied as their neighborhoods and families. But they are all here to discover truths about themselves and the world around them, to learn from people with different experiences and perspectives than their own, and to make a positive difference in the world. In other words, they are quintessential Harvard College students.
We know that teaching and learning in an environment rich with varied perspectives and life experiences drives our academic excellence and differentiates the Harvard College experience. In the past year, I met with small groups of faculty who shared myriad ways that diverse perspectives enhance our classrooms. I heard inspiring stories of how student learning was enriched when multiple perspectives were voiced, and how students’ unique viewpoints improve the fabric of our teaching each year.
Research shows that diverse teams are more innovative, and I see every day the important roles they play in scientific discovery in our laboratories. We see this effect in our House system, where students live and learn together, coming from many places and circumstances but asking themselves similar questions about what it means to live a life of meaning and purpose. The answers to these questions – found together over late night chats and dining hall conversation – shape our students in ways that last a lifetime.
As the University’s leadership asserted when the Court’s decision was announced, the change in law did not change our fundamental commitments. We know that diversity measured on multiple axes drives academic excellence and shapes the transformational educational environment of Harvard College for our students. We will continue to work tirelessly to pull down barriers to a Harvard education, and, in compliance with the law, to deepen even further our commitment to broad-based diversity. As we nurture students as both scholars and leaders for a complex world, one that requires their innovation and creativity, we owe them nothing less.
Sincerely,
Hopi Hoekstra
Hopi Hoekstra
Edgerley Family Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences
C. Y. Chan Professor of Arts and Sciences
Xiaomeng Tong and Yu Chen Professor of Life Sciences