<p>im just wondering if historical black colleges are good/prestigious...</p>
<p>and if a person who is not black can attend?</p>
<p>also are the professors there all black?</p>
<p>for the most part the professors and students are black, but there is definitely some white or other race population in the schools...its just very small percentages-- the "prestigious" ones would be howard, maybe schoolls like grambling (partly because of football/bands)-- i dont know much abt these schools so i dont want to say too much</p>
<p>Historically black colleges as a whole tend to have pretty good reputations, because a lot of them take in kids that could otherwise not afford to go to college and really help them succeed. Also, they oftentimes give out great merit scholarships to well-qualified, well-off kids ;). There are definitely some that are more prestigious and more well-known than others. I'm not really sure what the consensus is on an informal "ranking", though. Historically black colleges are also heavily recruited from by top firms who need to meet unspoken racial quotas and/or generally amp up the diversity. Ditto for grad schools. The alumni base? Particularly strong. </p>
<p>Yes, kids of any race are allowed to attend (that's why they're called "historically" black colleges, not black colleges). However, some of the benefits of attending a historically black college that would be bestowed upon a black student - such as a high level of recruitment - might not be bestowed on the white student. However, I would imagine there would be many other benefits to being of a different race in a historically black school. Talk about a life experience!</p>
<p>Also, this is a completely unrelated tangent and maybe slightly racist, but - at my public school, the majority of the black kids hang out together and are "ghetto". Yes, it's true! They are loud and disruptive and make up the majority of the lower-division courses. When I went to a historically black college for some random event, I saw an amazing diversity of articulate, well-informed students - and hardly any of them acted "gangster". It was really an eye-opener and pretty damn cool. For a black kid that's been surrounded all of his life by wannabe-gangsters...a historically black college must be like heaven! (I admit it depends on the college).</p>
<p>Anyway. Yeah. Probably way more than you wanted.</p>
<p>I've heard of black kids with stats impressive enough to get into any ivy going to Howard simply because of the sense of community at a historically black college. Howard business has launched the career of many successful balck businessman.</p>
<p>I'm not black, but I have heard that some of those colleges are full of extremely smart students. One of my white friends attends one and he enjoys it.</p>
<p>Hardtoimpress gave a really good overview. As for prestige Howard, Spelman, and Morehouse tend to be the HBCU "Ivies" and Hampton is very good as well (but I've heard VERY strict).</p>
<p>Back in the 1970s, Dr. Thomas Sowell wrote a brief critique of the reputation of historically black colleges and universities.</p>
<p>They are good, yes, but keep in mind that the research productivity of some departments is less than the output of some individuals at other schools.</p>
<p>Hardtoimpress, do you live in the suburbs? If so don't worry, every kid(white, black, purple) acts like that.</p>
<p>I'm going to Spelman College. When I visited the campus, it was ANYTHING but ghetto. All the girls were simply amazing.</p>
<p>Now there are some ghetto HBCUs like FAMU and BCC.</p>
<p>The HBCU experience is amazing and I can't wait to be a part of it.</p>
<p>BCC is the local community college and not at all historically black.</p>
<p>BCC=bethune cookman</p>
<p>I'm not saying anything negative about the quality of education and students at Grambling, but recently their student newspaper was stopped (due to plagiarism and tons of grammar/spelling issues) and reinstated...so it's apparently not all good. Hopefully that isn't a true reflection of the education and students, but it is a little bit hard to ignore.</p>
<p>As for community and all of that good stuff, I have a friend from high school that goes there and he has nothing but good things to say about that aspect of Grambling (maybe a few small negative comments, but none that I can clearly recall). On the other hand, a girl that I talked to in a Dallas department store (I believe she was the manager? ...don't remember for sure) graduated from my school (only a few miles away from Grambling) had a few friends that went there and said that the majority of students she met made her very uncomfortable (she was from Oregon...so the culture was very different from what she was used to). These are two black students, by the way. I don't know any white folks that go there.</p>
<p>So basically, there are two sides of every issue and it just depends on your background and what you're comfortable with.</p>
<p>The third of three articles; links to earlier two at the bottom of this article</p>