The decline coincides with the president scrutinizing elite colleges and their policies. Now, there is one exception of these elite schools. Smith College. The number of black students enrolled there has risen. Joining me now is the Vice President of Enrollment at Smith College, Joanna May. Thank you so much for being with me. What is Smith’s College? So the AP looked at 20 schools and they found a decrease from 2023 to 2025 of black students in the freshman class except for Smith. You see, we’ll put the numbers for Smith up the increase there. So what do you attribute that outlier status? What are you doing that the others are not? Well, I think it’s a testament to Smith as an institution and into the admissions staff and how they articulate the value of Smith education to students.

We overall enrolled one of our largest classes in history this year in one of our most selective admissions cycles. We actually had a similar number of black applicants to past years and admitted slightly fewer black students this year, but our yield on black students. So the number of admitted students who chose Smith increased significantly. And the reasons that happened, I think, of course, are very individual for every student and family. But I think that as a whole, as a whole, the students are looking for the kind of college environment that Smith provides. And then our mission resonates with students, particularly students of color.

Let’s put up some of the comparable schools here in the decreases from 2023 to 2025. Columbia in 2023, 20 percent of their freshman class was black, 13 percent this year. Harvard, 18 percent versus 11.5. Princeton, 9 percent in 2023, 5 percent this year. Diversity at the Department of Education has become in some ways a dirty word. And there are universities or schools that are shy of using it. I’ve read some of the interviews you participated in, even internally within the school, and it’s a word that you all don’t shy away from. Do you believe that this outlier status and your attention to diversity makes you a target? I think we’re staying focused on Smith, and we’re thrilled.

Is this a women’s college? This is a women’s college. Typical. So I don’t know how they do it. I would have to figure out how they’re saying this. 100 percent of every student’s demonstration need is met through our comprehensive approach to financial aid. There is no fee to apply for admission. 100 percent of every student’s demonstrated need is met. Financial aid packages contain no loans. Every Smith student is eligible for at least one summer of internship or research funding. Incoming high-need students may be eligible for startup grants to help with transition to Smith. There is no income cut off for financial aid.

Pay no tuition. Families with an annual income up to 150,000 and typical assets. Students may qualify for financial aid, made possible through the college’s endowment and generous philanthropy of Smith’s alums and donors, whose gifts carry forward founders Sophia Smith’s vision of education as a public good. 61 percent of students receive a need-based grant. 110 million dollars of financial aid awarded by Smith during it. What is the size of this? This is all women’s. This is an all women’s college. So there you go then. I mean shout out to them but at the same time, what they failed to mention and this is why I started to deep dive myself.

I need to know myself. I need to know myself. I want to know what’s going on. I want to know what’s going on. They’re not targeting men. They’re not targeting men at all. So when they start talking, let me see, with the increased diversity of the class, you know, we were founded 150 years ago at a time where women were not allowed to attend elite colleges and universities. And so that mission of access and academic excellence has been a hallmark of Smith from the beginning. And I think students are connecting to that more now, you know, perhaps given the political moment.

But I think we’re, you know, we’re just staying focused on us and we’re following the law that was established by the students for fair admission decision. We don’t consider racial classification in our admissions process, but we still strive to enroll a diverse student body and diverse across every different metric. Not just race and ethnicity, but geography, socioeconomic background, academic interest, extracurricular talent, because we know Smith is a better and stronger place when students are exposed to people who are different from them. And so you say you don’t consider race in admissions as is prohibited by law now after the ruling from the Supreme Court, but the president and the administration have been zeroing in on some of those racial proxies, as they say, the ways to get to the question of race without asking it explicitly.

And you also say that you are not using those? Correct. We actually don’t get access to the racial demographics of the applicant pool, either for individual applicants or for the pool as a whole until after the student is enrolled. And so we don’t really know what the diversity of the class or pool is until that information is revealed over the summer once the classes is closed. We’ve always strove to enroll a socioeconomically diverse student body. We offer one of the best financial aid programs in the country. We meet the full demonstrated need of every student and we do that with grants and not loans.

So our students are able to graduate debt free. We just announced a new financial aid initiative called the Next 150 pledge in honor of Smith’s 150th anniversary. So it says that the average salary well after years after graduation is about $45,000 a year. 91% graduation rate. They only graduate in women. I mean, it’s a women’s only college. They have about 2300 to 2500 students on campus. Average incoming class is. I don’t even remember. I think it was like a little over 2000 students or something like that. I don’t know. So I don’t know, man, like it’s.

Honestly, I’m gonna be real with you. I think that most people should go to. Most guys should probably get a trade. I think that most guys should probably get a trade. I think that a lot of guys. We got a lazy generation of guys that don’t want to do stuff physical with their hands no more. Everybody just want to sleep. Everybody want to chill. They don’t really want to go out there and grind and get it. They don’t want to pay their dues. They don’t want to build any companies. Man, you should become an electrician, bro.

Seriously, you should become a plumber in real life. And they’re always going to need plumbers. They’re always going to need electricians. They always don’t need skilled tradesmen. But people don’t want to do anything like that, right? And so I’m not telling you that you’ve got to do that forever. But I’m telling you if you want a foundation and you want a skill set that you’ll always want to be able to make money. I think we need to be start pushing skill trades, bro. It’s very rare. You can raise a family. You can have a good life.

You may not be out there with me in San Diego making a spending $85,000 a month. On rent. But, but you can absolutely have a good life and you can get there. You just got to make the right investments with the money that you make. But I don’t know, man, like they never even said nothing about the fact that it was a women’s only college. And CNN, this guy, he picks one college and it’s this niche college that’s a tier two private liberal arts college. And they’re talking about, see, they keep trying to push you all.

They keep trying to promote a certain thing, man. And I don’t like these agendas. That’s why I got to go and do my own research because people don’t want to actually know the truth. So I had to deep dive a little bit to better understand certain things. Most people don’t want to get into trades though. They don’t. They don’t want to get into trades. There’s a stigma with trades among young people. Well, here’s the other part of that though. Who are you trying to impress? You trying to get your money up or you trying to impress people? Are you trying to get your money up or you trying to impress people? That’s what I’m trying to understand.

Because see, it ain’t no pride in being broke. And it’s a lot of people that’s watching the calendar. Now all of a sudden everybody want to call a senator. Everybody want to call their congressman. Hey guys, are you actually voting?
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