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Supreme Court decision has not slowed minority student enrollment
Racial minority enrollment has increased nationwide at both the undergraduate and graduate level despite the Supreme Court ruling that banned affirmative action.
“Hispanic, Black, and multiracial students had large enrollment growth at both the undergraduate and graduate levels,” according to a study from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The study found compared spring 2026 enrollment to spring 2025 enrollment.
During the spring 2026 semester, nearly 2 million black undergraduate students and around 364,000 black graduate students were enrolled at colleges and universities across the United States.
Compared to numbers from spring 2025, black undergraduate enrollment has increased 3.4 percent, while black graduate enrollment grew by 6.5 percent. The study also shows similar improvements among Hispanic and multiracial students.
The center’s findings track with other recent stories, including the increase in minority enrollment at Arkansas universities following the 2023 Supreme Court ruling that affirmed racial preferences in admissions are unconstitutional.
The spring 2025 numbers would be the first spring semester that would be expected to show the effects of the decision. There were 229,000 more black students enrolled in spring 2025 when compared to spring 2024.
The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center declined to address questions about the enrollment changes and potential causes. A spokeswoman directed The Fix to further information about past data.
Several advocacy groups, including the NAACP and the Thurgood Marshall College Fund, did not respond to multiple emails in the past several weeks seeking comment on the findings and how they related to concerns about the affirmative action prohibition.
However, an ambassador for Project 21 said the data shows concerns about affirmative action prohibitions were overblown.
“Most of these students never needed the racial preference,” Donald Eason said in an email to The College Fix. “I didn’t, and my children didn’t need it.”
Eason told The Fix: “Most Black undergraduate applicants never relied on it. They applied on their own merit—their record, their work, and their ability.”
Eason argues that affirmative action was actively harming retention rates at universities. Without programs shoehorning students into universities that do not suit them, minority students are now encouraged to enroll to attend colleges that match their academic preparation.
“Only a relatively small number of elite institutions used race as a tool for enrollment.” Eason said. “When you take that tool away, students are more likely to be admitted on merit rather than skin color or socioeconomic checkbox.”
According to Eason, students who attend institutions that better align with their academic preparation are much more likely to remain enrolled and complete their degrees.
Eason said the race-based admissions ban has improved enrollment, retention, and persistence, and expects the trend to continue.
“Retention follows admission. When a student is placed in a school whose academic demands match his preparation, he is more likely to stay, pass his courses, and finish,” Eason said.
The increase in minority enrollment at Arkansas universities further illustrates this.
“After the Supreme Court ruling, Black freshman enrollment at Arkansas colleges rose about 25 percent from 2023 to 2025, and Hispanic freshman enrollment rose more than 22 percent,” he said. “At the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville the increases were even larger. That is the opposite of the collapse that was predicted.”
“The qualified pool was always larger than the advocates admitted. Race-based admissions mainly rearranged seats at a handful of highly selective campuses,” Eason said.
These trends could continue.
The College Fix reported in late August that more Americans, particularly low-income, rural, and black students, are applying to college for the upcoming years.
MORE: George Washington U. skirted race-based admissions ban
