<p>My D attends an urban public high school that's 70% AA,,,as we've been touring colleges, she and I have both been surprised by just how white these colleges can be....Yes, there are Asian students...and some colleges with what appears to be a large international population...but are we missing any schools that have a larger AA population but also aren't HBC? For what it's worth, my kid is white (I am too :) but she has an interest in international relations, world food issues, and maybe African studies as well.</p>
<p>for basic guidelines: 33 ACT, 4/300, good ECs. </p>
<p>Swarthmore and Haverford only have 6-7% African-American student bodies, but they both have a very global perspective, on account of their Quaker heritage. My son has African-American and Latino friends who went to Haverford. </p>
<p>Emory U is among the most diverse top private universities found on the East Coast. Last year’s freshman class included 10% African American and 9% Hispanic students, plus a large Asian and international student population as well. </p>
<p>Most of the Ivies and some of the top LACs have the highest percentage of African-American and Hispanic students out of the top schools in the Northeast/East Coast. Columbia is probably the most diverse highly selective school. Amherst, Williams, Princeton, Penn, Wesleyan all have roughly 18-20% AA/Hispanic combined populations.</p>
<p>I went through the same thought process as you when my Daughter said that diversity was important to her, coming from a very diverse urban school. Unfortunately this is hard to find on the east coast unless you are an ivy-level candidate.</p>
<p>Depends on what you mean by “larger”. Most top/elite universities have black/African American populations that are lower than 10%.</p>
<p>Some mid-range schools might appeal:</p>
<p>-Agnes Scott College - small women’s LAC in Georgia. 35% African American, 9% Hispanic/Latino.
-CUNY colleges: all of the four-year CUNY colleges are pretty diverse. Hunter college is 11% black and 19% Hispanic/Latino; City College is 19% black and 30% Hispanic/Latino; and Lehman College is 31% black and 50% Hispanic/Latino.
-Several Cal State campuses - they’re predominantly Hispanic/Latino, but some of them have significant African American populations.
-Fairleigh Dickinson University
-Georgia State University (which is 40% black)
-St. John’s University in Queens
-the University of Houston (the second most racially diverse research university in the U.S., according to them)</p>
<p>For what it’s worth, I’m African American. I went to an HBCU for undergrad, but I went to Columbia for grad school - ethnically diverse but still <10% black. At campuses that are kind of diverse like Columbia but not super-duper diverse, the African American kids do form tight-knit social circles through black student organizations and other outlets. I was in one at Columbia (it was actually the black and Latino kids together because there were so few of us lmao), but it wasn’t just black & Latino kids - we had some Asian and white folks who wanted to join us for graduate-level shenanigans and that was cool.</p>
<p>So even if your D does decide to go to a mostly white school, maybe she can join the black students organization? It may sound weird, but I have a white Jewish friend who went to an undergrad that was only 5% black. She majored in black studies and joined the black student organization and was welcomed, and has a mix of friends of different races and backgrounds.</p>
<p>In fact, although I loved my HBCU experience a lot, I’m really glad I went somewhere so diverse for graduate school because now I have friends of all kinds and it’s really cool to exchange cultural information (and eat each other’s food lol!)</p>
<p>We are looking at the University of Miami, and the diversity there is one of the things that really appeals to me and my son. We are from Arizona and he has a lot of Mexican and Mexican American friends, and he speaks Spanish fluently, so he’s used to a mixed culture with different types of people getting along. To me, a lack of racial diversity is kind of a turn off (I’m from Seattle, so I grew up in a very diverse city as well) but I do realize that a lot of the northeastern schools would be that way. </p>
<p>Like Juillet indicated, the Black American population at most U.S. colleges is well below 10%. Typically it’s around 4% or less. Also, evaluating a college’s ethnic diversity and evaluating its offerings in African American studies or African American history are two different things.</p>
<p>CSUs with the highest percentage of black students:
17.5% CSUDH
11.7% CSUEB
7.7% CSUSB
7.0% CSUMB
6.8% CSUB
(lowest is 0.8% CPSLO)</p>
<p>CSUs with the highest percentage of Latino students:
62.5% CSULA
58.5% CSUSB
55.5% CSUDH
51.6% CSUB
44.1% CSUFresno
(lowest is 15.2% CPSLO)</p>
<p>CSUs with the highest percentage of Asian students:
38.0% SJSU
31.9% SFSU
26.4% CPP
24.8% CSUEB
24.6% CSULB
(lowest is 3.6% HSU)</p>
<p>Note: California’s population is 39% white, 38% Latino, 14% Asian, and 7% black, although the traditional college age cohort (whether or not in college) is probably more Latino and Asian and less white and black.</p>
<p>“So even if your D does decide to go to a mostly white school, maybe she can join the black students organization?”</p>
<p>Not weird. At Harvard, I was part of Kuumba, which is a choir, but also a cultural, social, and political space. I was warmly welcomed as a white Jewish atheist graduate student. I’m still friends with a number of Kuumbabes today.</p>
<p>Amherst
Baruch
CCNY
Old Westbury
Staten Island
Columbia
Fashion Institute of Technology
George Mason
Hunter
John Jay
LIU Brooklyn
Marymount
NYC College of Technology
Nyack
Rutgers - Newark
St. John’s University
UMass - Boston
Vaughn Aeronautics
York</p>
<p>^^And only 33 schools throughout the entire US with at least 10% black, 10% Latino, and 10% Asian students </p>
<p>If you allow the Hispanic population to fall below 10%, the East Coast schools expands slightly to include Temple, University of Maryland, College Park, University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and Virginia Commonwealth University</p>
<p>Also, your D will have opportunities to study abroad and explore other cultures when in college. I agree that lack of diversity is not a good thing, but at a large college with diversity, there are many students and many ways for students to find a niche, even if the demographics are not the same as your D’s high school. </p>
<p>Amherst sounds like it could be a great fit. They offer a certificate in African Studies. <a href=“http://www.fivecolleges.edu/african”>www.fivecolleges.edu/african</a></p>
<p>Some schools differentiate between hyphenated Americans and international students from Africa, Latin America and Asia - and some don’t. I know Wesleyan claims 11% “black”, 9% Latin American and 22% Asian and Asian American when all the international students are combined with the Americans on campus:</p>
<p>You can use collegedata to find the schools that are just under 10% (and this is % of domestic students btw) by choosing 5% for AA/Hispanic and sort descending by that column. Williams and some other great schools are just under 10%.</p>
<p>By the old categories (2012) Williams was AA 12%, Asian 15%, Hispanic 11%. Pulling the non- Hispanic mixed races out (6% of minorities) now Hispanic is 12%, Asian 10.5% and AA 8% according to 2014 CDS. Non resident aliens (7%) are not counted in any other category. </p>
<p>As far as gauging genuine diversity though, getting on campus is so important. My kids have found that integration, curriculum, campus culture and other intangibles can make more difference ( much more difference) than the numbers, esp just a few percentage points. Just as with rankings, the %s can be a rough place to start. A college with 4% AA is going to have trouble offering a meaningful experience for a student (of any race) seeking diversity. </p>