Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, February 12, 2026

Most people believed that the Supreme Court's 2023 decision to end affirmative action in higher education admissions would cause a big drop in Black and Hispanic enrollment at the nation's top colleges. What happened is more complicated. Overall, more Black and Hispanic students enrolled in four-year universities in fall 2024 than in fall 2023. But in nearly all highly selective private and public colleges"the 85 that accept 25 percent or fewer applicants"Black enrollment declined or remained flat; the same was true of Hispanic enrollment at more than half of those institutions. Public flagships, typically the most selective public universities in their state, experienced a 6 percent increase in the enrollment of Black and Hispanic first-year students. Yet at 20 of the 50 flagships, Black student enrollment fell or flatlined, and Hispanic student enrollment fell or essentially stayed the same at 16.

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Interesting stuff. Although the article does touch on a salient point at the very end - it's hard to draw too many conclusions with only 1 year of data.

#1 | Posted by BellRinger at 2026-02-12 12:49 PM | Reply

" But in nearly all highly selective private and public colleges (the 85 that accept 25 percent or fewer applicants) Black enrollment declined or remained flat"

Why is that a surprise? Frankly, the Macro Dial is turning exactly the way I'd expect: nearly zero "selective" colleges have higher black enrollment than before.

#2 | Posted by Danforth at 2026-02-12 01:00 PM | Reply

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