A significant drop in the number of incoming students from underrepresented groups at Johns Hopkins University since a Supreme Court decision restricted the use of race in admissions, means the racial diversity of the university’s new undergraduate class will be the lowest in a decade, according to new data.

Hopkins, a private research university in Baltimore, this week shared socioeconomic statistics and the self-reported identities of this fall’s incoming first-year undergraduates. Despite maintaining steady socioeconomic diversity, this year’s entering class saw a 19.4 percentage point drop from underrepresented groups — or a 52% decline compared to last year’s incoming freshman.

The impact of the Supreme Court ruling on “racial and ethnic diversity in this admissions cycle is profoundly disappointing,” said Hopkins President Ron Daniels and Provost Ray Jayawardhana in a joint statement.

Latino and Black students had the sharpest decreases, by 10 and eight percentage points. Hopkins data showed that the percentage of white students who enrolled this year also dropped, while the percentage of Asian Americans rose significantly.

The percentage of students from low-income backgrounds, measured by eligibility for federal Pell grants, rose to 23.8%, Hopkins’ highest percentage to date, according to its newly released data. The percentage of first-generation college students rose from 19.4% to 20.3%. And the percentage of students who are first-generation or low-income is 30.2%.

The data reflects a further addition to the growing list of universities affected by last year’s Supreme Court ruling banning race-based admissions, which is altering the demographics of students entering higher education.

In their joint statement, Daniels and Jayawardhana reiterated their concerns about the ruling and its effect on the institution’s student population.

“Last summer, when the Supreme Court issued its decision to restrict the use of race and ethnicity in college admissions, we shared our concerns that the change would be a significant setback in the progress we have made in building a university community that represents the extraordinary diversity of talented students across America,” the two wrote in the message, according to a news release.

Prior to the Supreme Court decision, the university said it experienced steady growth in levels of underrepresented students. From 2010 to 2020, the percentage of first-year students self-reporting identities from underrepresented groups rose steadily from 15.5% of the class to 33.8%, according to a news release.

As a result, the increase in racial and ethnic diversity directly correlated with an improvement in the “academic qualifications” of enrolled students, the university said.

The June 2023 Supreme Court decision not only changed the racial demographic of selective universities in Maryland, like Hopkins, but has also forced institutions to look for new strategies to recruit for diverse student bodies.

David Phillips, vice provost for admissions and financial aid at Johns Hopkins, said the institution has made strides in increasing diversity over the years — and would like to continue to do so.

“Moving forward, we will continue to scrupulously comply with the law while exploring race-neutral strategies to build a university community that resembles the rich diversity of America,” Phillips said in a release.