First-year Common App applicants from underrepresented minority races or ethnicities grew by 5% compared to this time in the 2024-25 school year, continuing a trend that began over a decade ago, according to a mid-season report released Thursday by the nonprofit. However, the number of underrepresented student applicants still remains smaller than non-minority applicants.

Black or African American applicants and applicants identifying as two or more races are growing at the fastest rates, increasing year over year by 8% and 7% respectively.

Meanwhile, the share of U.S. applicants identifying as White at this point in the application season declined slightly to 45.1% from 45.7% in 2024-25, which the report says continues a trend beginning in 2013-14. The application season runs from Aug. 1 through July 31.

Common App, a widely used online platform allowing students to apply to multiple colleges using one form,is continuing to see growth in applications, said Walter Herring, senior data scientist at the nonprofit, during a virtual March 12 roundtable discussion on the findings.

Overall, the number of first-year applicants — 1,429,747 — increased by 2% compared to the same time last year. Those 1.4 million applicants filed a total of 9.4 million applications, according to the report.

Preexisting trends in the racial makeup of applicants continue almost three years following the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Students For Fair Admissions v. Harvard, which put a stop to race-conscious college admissions. That ruling led educational equity advocates to warn against declines in college admissions via the Common App or application patterns for minority students.

It was also expected to impact other factors related to college admissions, such as race-related scholarships, which the U.S. Department of Education under the Trump administration is seeking to deem unlawful.

“Taken together, these data suggest that there have been no meaningful deviations from pre-existing trends over the past decade in race/ethnicity reporting or population growth on the Common App platform after the U.S. Supreme Court ruling,” the report said, regarding the Common App data.

Read the full article about Common App demographic data by Naaz Modan at Higher Ed Dive.