Dartmouth demographics largely unchanged following Supreme Court ruling
Published: 09-20-2024 8:01 PM |
HANOVER — Dartmouth College reported a record number of low-income students in the Class of 2028, while the percentage of Black, Asian American, Native American, and white students declined slightly after a U.S. Supreme Court decision significantly limited the use of race in the admissions process.
This incoming college class is the first admitted since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2023 decision to ban affirmative action and require colleges to mask race while considering applications.
The opinion, written by Chief Justice John Roberts, states that college admissions may consider “an applicant’s discussion of how race affected his or her life.” For example, a student may write about how they overcame racial discrimination or that they served in a leadership position for a cultural club.
Dartmouth declined to comment on how the decision affected its admissions process.
“You have to accomplish things to get here,” Dartmouth sophomore Andrew Pham said from the lounge in the college’s First Generation Office.
Pham, originally from Vietnam, is the first person in his family to go to a U.S. college. He said that he found traversing the application process as a first generation student difficult.
The First Generation Office is a space for students who are the first in their family to attend college to hang out, and find resources on academics, social belonging, and professional development. Many people who work in the office are first-gen alums themselves. The office is especially important this year because 17% of the first-year class are first-gen students, an all time high for Dartmouth.
“Seeing (members of the first generation office staff) succeed despite their backgrounds, and sometimes even because of their backgrounds, makes me want to be the best I can be at Dartmouth,” said class of 2028 student Emmanuel Moreno whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico.
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The 2028 class set a record for “the most socioeconomically diverse class” in the college’s history, Lee Coffin, Dartmouth’s vice president and dean of admissions and financial aid, said in a Monday news release from the college.
Socioeconomic diversity is important, Pham said, because “it allows people to move up.” He also noted that it’s good to give the wealthier students a reality check.
Pell Grant recipients — a federal grant awarded to undergraduate students who display “exceptional financial need,” according to the office of Federal Student Aid — increased by five percentage points over last year to 19.4%, an all-time high for Dartmouth.
The average financial award jumped to $71,582, $3,700 more than last year.
Tuition, room and board for the 2024-25 school year is just shy of $91,000.
Adjusting to Dartmouth has been “a process,” Moreno said.
He arrived to campus on Aug. 10 from his home in Texas, earlier than the majority of first-year students, because he took part in the First-Year Summer Enrichment Program, or FYSEP.
FYSEP is a program that brings incoming first-gen students to campus the summer before their fall semester at Dartmouth begins. Once there, students meet professors, take sample classes, and learn about resources available to them on campus.
“It was good I met people like me first,” Moreno said. “I know there’s a community here I can rely on.”
Demographic shifts in first-year students in a post-affirmative action America varied from school to school.
At Dartmouth, the percentage of Black and Native American students each declined slightly, from 10.9% to 10.2%, and 5.9% to 5.3% respectively, the article reported. White students declined from 52.3% to 48% and Asian American students from 23.3% to 21.8%. Meanwhile, the percentage of Hispanic or Latinx students increased from 9.7% to 12.7%.
Harvard reported a 4% decrease in Black students, 2% increase in Latinx students, and no difference in the percentage of Asian-American students. Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Amherst College saw larger decreases in the percentage of Black students from 15% to 5% and 11% to 3% respectively according to a story by the Associated Press released on Sep. 11.
On Thursday, Inside Higher Ed reported that the nonprofit organization Students for Fair Admissions, which brought the case that led to the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision on affirmative action, is now alleging Yale, Princeton and Duke did not follow race-blind admissions policies.
Similar to Dartmouth, Yale and Princeton reported little change in its demographics from last year and Duke reported a slight increase in Black students.
Students for Fair Admissions sent letters to the three schools on Tuesday requesting them to reveal their admissions process and threatening to sue them if they don’t.
Last September, the U.S. Department of Education released a report with strategies for higher education institutions to increase their diversity in light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision. Some of the strategies included additional recruitment in minority communities and taking into account adversity students have faced.
Once students are admitted, the department suggested programs aimed to support students from minority backgrounds in order to increase retention and completion rates.
In an effort to recruit students from rural communities, Dartmouth, along with 34 other top colleges and universities, is part of the Small Towns and Rural Communities (STARS) college network.
STARS brings admissions councilors from top universities to rural schools by providing financial help for travel and staffing and provides information to high school students about their higher education options.
In February, Dartmouth announced they will once again require standardized testing in the application process starting with the Class of 2029. The college made submitting test scores optional in 2020, since many students could not take the SATs or ACTs during the COVID-19 pandemic. However, an analysis of Dartmouth’s admissions data done by Dartmouth economics and sociology professors, supplemented by studies done on similar institutions found that standardized test scores are good predictors of academic success in college.
“SAT/ACTs can be especially helpful in identifying students from less-resourced backgrounds who would succeed at Dartmouth but might otherwise be missed in a test-optional environment,” wrote Dartmouth President Sian Leah Beilock in the announcement.
This is because test scores of applicants are compared to the mean scores of an applicant’s high school, revealing whether a student excels in their environment, according to Beilock.
Beilock acknowledged that “SAT and ACT scores reflect inequality in society and in educational systems across the nation,” and asserted that test scores will be just one piece of a “holistic admissions approach.”
Emma Roth-Wells can be reached at erothw ells@ vnews.com or 603-727-3242.