Last year, after the abolishment of affirmative action policies for minority race admissions at US universities, statistics revealing a significant increase in the enrollment rate of Asian students at top prestigious universities this year have emerged.
According to the admissions statistics released by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) on the 22nd local time, the percentage of Asian American students among the total student body increased by 7 points from last year, reaching 47% compared to 40% last year.
In contrast, the percentage of Black and African American students dropped sharply from 15% last year to 5% this year, and the percentage of Hispanic and Latino students also decreased from 16% last year to 11% this year. The percentage of White students experienced a slight decrease from 38% last year to 37% this year.
The New York Times reported that MIT was the first major university to make public the racial statistics of incoming students after the US Federal Supreme Court prohibited affirmative action policies last year. The newspaper highlighted the noticeable decline in minority student ratios, such as including Hawaiian natives, Blacks, and Hispanics, from around 25% in recent years to approximately 16% this year compared to the previous baseline.
MIT President Sally C. Blount expressed regret, stating that failing to maintain the extensive racial and ethnic diversity achieved by the MIT community over the past few decades following the Federal Supreme Court ruling last year was disappointing.
In June last year, the US Federal Supreme Court made a final ruling declaring affirmative action policies unconstitutional for discriminating against White and Asian applicants. Consequently, affirmative action, considered one of the achievements of the civil rights movement in the 1960s, was banned in universities after over 60 years. This means that each university can no longer apply the previous practice of giving preference to minority race students.
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