In October 2024, Stanford reported preliminary enrollment data for the entering undergraduate Class of 2028, the first class to be admitted under the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling on race-conscious admissions.
Stanford has now reported final enrollment numbers for the class as part of the 2024-25 Common Data Set, a data-reporting effort used across higher education institutions.
A summary of the final enrollment data for the first-year class can be found below, along with data for the previous fall’s first-year class. The data include first-time, full-time students enrolled in the first-year undergraduate class as of the fall quarter census date (Oct. 21, 2024). There were 1,693 such students in the Class of 2028.
As with the preliminary data, the final data are provided below in two formats:
- One uses the federal government’s reporting methodology, in which a “two or more races” category counts all domestic non-Hispanic students who report being of more than one race. This federal reporting methodology is used in the Common Data Set.
- The other uses the “check all that apply” approach – not used in the Common Data Set but used by some peer institutions – in which the data show each individual race that is reported by domestic multi-racial students. Under this methodology, the totals sum to more than 100% because students can identify multiple races.
Federal Race / Ethnicity 2023 | Federal Race / Ethnicity 2024 | Check-all-that-apply 2023 | Check-all-that-apply 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
American Indian or Alaska Native | 0.8% | 0.7% | 3.2% | 3.6% |
Asian | 28.8% | 33.0% | 36.5% | 41.3% |
Black or African American | 8.9% | 4.5% | 12.3% | 6.6% |
Hispanic or Latino | 16.7% | 14.6% | 16.5% | 14.6% |
Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander | 0.3% | 0.1% | 1.6% | 1.5% |
White | 21.9% | 24.1% | 40.5% | 41.6% |
Two or More Races | 8.8% | 8.3% | n/a | n/a |
Unknown/Decline to state | 0.2% | 0.3% | 0.2% | 0.2% |
International | 13.6% | 14.3% | 13.6% | 14.3% |
Total | 100.0% | 100.0% | 124.4% | 123.7% |
Figures for some categories of students in the final data have changed from the preliminary data reported in October. Principal reasons for these differences are:
- The preliminary data were based on students’ self-identified race/ethnicity on their application to Stanford. When students prepare to matriculate at Stanford, they are prompted to confirm or update their information in the university’s student information system. It is this updated information that is reported in the final data.
- Some students who did not provide race/ethnicity information on their application to Stanford provided this information when they enrolled. The unknown/decline to state category represented 8% of the class in the preliminary data but less than 1% of the class in the final enrollment data.
- Some students who reported one race/ethnicity when they applied reported more than one race/ethnicity when they enrolled. This had the effect of moving them from a single race/ethnicity category in the preliminary data to the “two or more races” category in the final data under the federal reporting methodology.