I’m not totally sure what category to but this in, but you rather go to a diverse college, or a more challenging college with ery little diversity?
I actually had to make this decision, and I chose a less diverse school. I’d say it’s about 80-85% White and Asian. My top priority was to get a good education, and since I’ve always been in really homogeneous environments (either with all people from my same race, or as a minority), I didn’t really know why diversity should be meaningful to me.
Pros: I still feel like I’m exposed to way more diversity than I was in high school: geographic, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, upbringing, etc. In fact, I feel like my understanding of diversity itself has broadened, and that I understand people more holistically than boxing them into racial/ethnic categories. Also, though my school is predominately White/Asian, the city where the school is is predominately Black/Latino, so I’m not completely sheltered.
So I think that I get many of the benefits of diversity–learning more about myself and why I believe what I do, while becoming more conscious of the world around me. But I didn’t have to sacrifice a quality education for it.
Cons: There is still a lot of ignorance or apathy when it comes to cultural awareness from non-minorities. For example, my school’s BSU held a die-in following the shooting of Michael Brown, and though I wasn’t in it, I heard a lot of joking and racist comments from many people. Also, less diversity has led to a lot of racial segregation, though I think my friend group is pretty diverse.
Overall, though, I’m happy with my choice. Now, if you meant some hypothetical situation where there was actually little to no diversity, I would probably choose the more diverse school, just because I’ve realized how much you learn outside the classroom.
I went to a historically black college, so it was not racially diverse at all - about 98% Black/African-American students. It was quite diverse in other ways, though. I enjoyed the experience, but that’s a very specific decision that I made deliberately, and I don’t regret it at all.
For me, the answer would depend on 1) whether you’re a racial/ethnic minority group member yourself, 2) how homogeneous the “better” school is, and 2) how much better the “better” school is. If you are a member of a minority group, how will you feel about being the only one - perhaps the only one in your classes, maybe one of a very few in your graduating class group, maybe the only one in your clubs and organizations?
The other thing is that going to a less diverse place (or a place with fewer “people who look like you”) doesn’t necessarily mean that you will experience more racism/discrimination, more micro aggressions, or even less understanding. After my HBCU, I went to a predominantly white institution (that was still quite diverse) for graduate school. I have friends from all races, ethnicities, and backgrounds, and I love that my friends have so many diverse perspectives and experiences. I also don’t mind sharing my cultural mores and perspectives with people (i.e., explaining the mechanics of my kinky hair, which tends to happen a lot). I now live in a town and work at a university that is less than 10% black. I am almost always the only black person - at anything, unless I go to a big event on campus. And I love this place too. I have yet to experience any racial microaggressions - and I still have random (usually white) people on the street telling me they love my Afro, lol.
There are pros and cons to both, of course. It also depends on whether you are comparing, let’s say, Harvard to your regional public university or just comparing Harvard to Columbia.
OP’s other posts mention that the OP is black and is considering Allegheny College (82.0% white, 4.5% black) and Pace University (50.9% white, 11.6% black). Perhaps the OP can clarify if these are the colleges in question, so that others with more specific knowledge of the actual colleges can comment.
But don’t forget to keep an eye on whether each school fits academically (i.e. offers what you want to study) and is affordable after scholarships and/or financial aid grants.
Those are the schools plus a few others like Simmons College and University of Oregon, but my main factor to picking a college is financial aid, so I guess I can’t be too picky, but I just don’t want to have to spend 4 years at a school where there’s a lot of segregation or racism. I know wherever I go there’s going to be ignorant people, but I’d rather have less of it so I can ignore it.