Oberlin enrolled its class of 2028 containing 701 students this past fall, a 10 percent decrease compared to the class who entered in the fall of 2023, according to self-reported data provided to the Review by the Office of Institutional Research & Analytics. The losses occurred almost entirely among students identifying as white. Underrepresented students of color made up a greater proportion of the fall class compared to the year prior, disproving widespread predictions that the Supreme Court’s decision to ban affirmative action would have an immediate negative impact on campus diversity.
Fall Enrollment Down 10 percent
The data — due to be published as part of the College’s Common Data Set — shows that the College enrolled only 701 first-year students in fall 2024, compared to 778 in fall 2023 and 882 the year prior.
That loss reflects a 10 percent decline from 2023, and a 20 percent decline from the College’s recent peak in fall 2022, according to a Review analysis. The current first-year class is the second smallest to enter Oberlin since 2018, second only to the 2020 cohort, who enrolled at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The loss is consistent with nationwide numbers, which saw first-year enrollment dip by 5 percent overall, according to reporting in The Chronicle of Higher Education. It coincides with both the Supreme Court’s decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard College — which effectively outlawed race-conscious admissions policies in the United States — and the overhaul of the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which created obstacles for many students seeking financial assistance.
Slight Gains for Underrepresented Students of Color, Despite Supreme Court Decision
The 2024 cohort marks the first class to apply following the Supreme Court’s decision to eliminate race-conscious admissions policies. For campuses including Harvard University and the University of Wisconsin at Madison, the decision correlated with an immediate drop in enrollment for underrepresented students of color.
This was not so at Oberlin. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of first-year students identifying as Black or African American rose from 28 to 38 students, while the number of Hispanic/Latino students rose from 58 to 79. Asian American enrollment dipped from 47 students in 2023 to just 26 in 2024.
“It will likely take a few years to fully understand all of the ramifications of the Supreme Court’s decision and to isolate them from the various other changes that impacted the class of 2028,” Oberlin Media Relations Director Andrea Simakis wrote in a statement to the Review. “For example, the rollout of the new FAFSA led to widespread deadline extensions as students navigated the chaos in receiving and evaluating their financial aid packages from other institutions, which certainly also impacted last year’s application season.”
Enrollment Plunges for Students Identifying as White
By contrast, enrollment of white students dipped sharply. Only 393 students identifying as white enrolled in fall 2024 compared to 507 the year prior, a decrease of more than 20 percent. White students made up more than 80 percent of the College’s overall enrollment losses. The change was not mirrored by the number of students declining to report their race, which increased by only seven individuals.
Simakis confirmed to the Review that “the percentage of the admitted class for white students was similar to last year.” A Review analysis found that the percentage of enrolled students who identified as white dropped by more than 10 percent, indicating that fewer white students who were admitted chose to enroll at Oberlin. The Review was not able to obtain data on the number of white students who applied to the class of 2028 or prior cohorts.
The drop reflects a nationwide decline in the number of white students pursuing a college degree.
“We were surprised to see that there had been declining numbers of white students going to college for quite some time,” Katherine Mangan, Senior Writer at The Chronicle of Higher Education, who has reported extensively on declines in white enrollment across the United States, said.
In collaboration with the Chronicle data team, Mangan found a 19 percent decrease in nationwide white enrollment since 2018, a steeper decline than among any other racial/ethnic group. Enrollment among all undergraduates has dropped by only nine percent.
Mangan also noted that, contrary to her expectations, white students who opt out of college tend to be highly affluent. Such students “have the luxury of being able to do something else, especially for a few years, because they have a little bit more of a financial cushion to fall back on than other students who have come to believe that college is really important to their future,” Mangan said.
Oberlin’s full Common Data Set for the 2024–25 school year is due to be released in the coming days.
