The Class of 2028, by the numbers
The June 2023 Supreme Court decision that banned race-conscious college admissions practices upended the 2024 admissions season for both universities and prospective college students. And while some elite institutions saw sharp declines in the number of underrepresented students in their incoming classes, most of UVA’s proportions stayed relatively close to those of previous classes.
As reported under federal counting guidelines, Hispanic students account for 9 percent of the incoming class, up from 7.2 percent from the previous year. The number of first-years who qualify for Pell Grants, intended for low-income students, grew from last year’s 16.4 percent to 22.4 percent. About 19 percent are first-generation college students, up from 17.5 percent last year.
Black students constitute 7.2 percent of the class, however, which is down from last year’s 8.2 percent. The proportion of Asian American students also dropped, from 21.6 percent to this year’s 20 percent. The proportion of white students remained about the same.
By comparison, schools such as Columbia, Brown, MIT and Cornell all saw sharp declines in the number of underrepresented racial groups in their incoming classes, according to an analysis by Inside Higher Ed. Even with the decline, some of those schools enrolled higher proportions of Black students than UVA did. At the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Black freshmen constitute 7.8 percent of the incoming class this year, down from 11 percent the year before.
Stephen Farmer (Grad class of ’86), UVA’s vice provost for enrollment, credits UVA’s relative steady numbers with focused recruitment efforts, all active or in the works before the Supreme Court decision. “We had some really good momentum going in the right direction before we had to react to the Supreme Court decision,” Farmer said. “And I think those things did really help us.”
UVA, for example, has had a long partnership with the Virginia College Advising Corps, which places recent college graduates as advisers in Virginia high schools.
Advisers don’t recruit students to UVA, Farmer said. But the organization’s mission is to increase the number of low-income, first-generation and underrepresented high school students who enter and graduate college. And an increasing share of students from high schools with advising corps counselors are coming to UVA. About 7 percent of this year’s first-years were advised by an advising corps counselor, up from 4 percent from the Class of 2026.
Another effort is All Virginia. The project, proposed months before the Supreme Court decision, targets Virginia high schools with high rates of low-income students and low rates of seniors who enroll at UVA. This year, with support from the program, 109 students enrolled at UVA from those 40 high schools, an 81 percent increase from the year before.
“The top students at these schools were not applying to UVA,” Farmer said. “They didn’t think they could afford it, and so they just didn’t raise their hand for UVA. We knew that if they did, they’d have good luck.”
UVA also revamped its Days on the Lawn program for admitted, but not always enrolled, students that brought more interactive experiences to get high school students excited about attending UVA, Farmer said. Among students admitted from the All Virginia schools, 49 attended Days on the Lawn, and 48 enrolled. Black student leaders and alumni also helped with recruiting and marketing efforts for the new class.
Alumni “shared some of their wisdom, and they just did it in a very generous, genuine way,” Farmer said. “I don’t have a way to measure it, but I think that kind of thing makes a difference.”
Making the admissions cycle more complicated for the Class of 2028 was the glitchy relaunch of FAFSA, the Free Application for Federal Student Aid, which left students who rely on financial aid waiting longer than usual for their aid packages.
Experts fear the botched launch may have triggered a drop in enrollment across the country, but Farmer said UVA’s financial services office stepped up to help individual students navigate the FAFSA rollout.
“It’s been a nightmare for families, and it’s been a nightmare for our team,” Farmer said. “But, despite all of that, the number of students in our class who qualify for Pell Grants is just way up.”
More financial aid support is also behind UVA’s successful admissions cycle, Farmer said.
In December 2023, UVA boosted financial aid support for in-state students, raising the family income ceiling for students to be eligible for grants and scholarships.
The 779 students who transferred into UVA are another success story, Farmer said. Nearly 29 percent qualified for Pell Grants and 25 percent are first-generation college students. About 35 percent had previously applied to UVA. “There’s more than one way to get to the University,” Farmer said. “And the best way is the way that works.”
