We will be exploring HBCUs but also eager to add some small LACs to the mix with diversity - ideally decent representation from the African-American community. And now with this SCOTUS decision, we will only be looking at colleges that respect human and reproductive rights which makes this search all the more challenging. Thank you for any suggestions/guidance.
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In addition to the degree of representation of AA students, you may want to consider the level of cross-group interaction, which is the topic of the JBHE article:linked below. With respect to one LAC, for example, the journal noted conflicting aspects:
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Thank you @merc81. Super helpful!
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Here’s the underlying JBHE annual ranking; as with any ranking however, you’ll have to do your own due diligence:
Black First-Year Students at the Nation’s Leading Liberal Arts Colleges : The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education (jbhe.com)
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Make sure your student talks to current minority students about their experience and not just students the school picks for you.
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Fascinating list. Bates rose to #1 with numbers of black students enrolled over the previous year.
I was in Maine a couple of weeks ago for the belated Class of 2020 graduation festivities and it seemed that AA students and their families were fairly well represented. I know in my D’s group of friends, there are a number of AA students and there was always interaction through her years there. Bates is pretty inclusive overall so it’s not that surprising.
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Totally concur that it’s super important for your D to talk to current students. Many of these schools have created a space of some sort for minority students, and dropping in there could be very helpful for collecting intel. Experiences vary so much, so an athlete who’s part of a tight team, for example, might report something quite different from someone else. Hearing those voices will help!
Your D should carefully assess what she wants from her college experience and how comfortable she feels in different types of environments. HBCUs can offer such a liberating experience, and if that is a strong draw, few LACs can match that. “Interaction” could mean for some students having to accommodate white norms. Weigh this for yourself!
Several of DS’ AA friends from HS attended the 3 BBC schools in Maine. All had good experiences, loved their schools and made good friends, generally yet all reported some level of micro-aggressions (or more) at some point and a less than welcoming attitude at times off campus. (That’s another consideration.)
I feel like this gets a little better every year at every school, but fit will depend a lot on expectations and desires. As you no doubt know, the inclusion part of DEI is much harder than the diversity piece.
I hope we’ll hear more about what you discover in your search.
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I’m white, so not the best qualified to answer this question, but I’ll tell you what little I know. Lots of good HBCUs in my home state of North Carolina. We have a good governor too. (State legislature not so much, but I remain hopeful about elections.)
Greensboro is a very diverse city with a pretty big African American percentage and two HBCUs, NC A&T and Bennett College (women’s), and also home to UNC-Greensboro a big public with a big percentage of black students and very diverse overall. My D22 applied to UNC-G. Ultimately didn’t choose it, but was accepted and I really liked it. Guilford College in Greensboro is also worth a look, one of the Colleges That Change Lives. When we toured we had two different black tour guides. Seemed a decent mix of students, but overall more white.
You might look at UNC-Asheville. It is a public university, but small and bills itself as a LAC. It’s pretty white, but there were a mix of students there when we toured.
I’m not sure if you have a son or daughter or how you feel about Georgia, but if you have a daughter and she is open to a women’s college Agnes Scott in Decatur/Atlanta is super diverse. I think white kids are like 40% of the student population.
Best of luck in your search!
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Thanks for this @Sweetgum ! My daughter did summer camp in Pisgah. We love NC and had Guilford on the list but I think I am struggling a bit with the south these days. Agnes Scott is also a fantastic school!
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It’s probably worth noting that Middletown CT (Wesleyan) has a sizable African-American population, 13% IIRC. So does Oberlin, OH.
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This is completely anecdotal. But, one thing that my family and I liked when we toured Macalester (which is on the list @circuitrider linked) is that when we ate lunch in the dining halls, we noticed that many of the groupings of students eating lunch together were very mixed. White kids, Asian kids, African American kids, Southeast Asian kids all sitting with each other in mixed groups. It added to what we already liked about the school. It was just one lunch on one day, but my hope it that it was representative of the culture there.
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If you liked Guilford, you might like Earlham. (Not sure how you feel about Indiana!) Also a Quaker school and reportedly a good choice for AA students. Both have very welcoming vibes.
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As a rising African American freshman with plans to attend an LAC this fall, I visited and interacted with students from a large number of LACs in the mid Atlantic + Ohio.
The schools that stood out to me as being the most inclusive and supportive were Vassar, Hamilton, and College of Wooster. I also heard great things about Barnard, but never researched the school due to the results ($$$) from the Net Price Calculator.
Most of the other schools I researched seemed fine. Many openly admitted they need to do more in terms of racial and economic diversity within their student body. The only one that gave off red flags was Dennison because the AA students I spoke with seemed unhappy with their experience.
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Do you mean specifically the college, or also the local area and local and state governments for these aspects?
Those with an interest in historical connections may want to know that influential civil rights leader Bob Moses graduated from Hamilton.
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Thank you… again.
I will look at Hamilton and watch how things play out in Ohio as there are several good schools there but the human and reproductive rights issue is a real issue.
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The state. There is enough to worry about when you send your kid away, I’d rather not have to worry about her being treated like chattel. Though I am certain many of the schools in these states are struggling with how to navigate this awful new situation that they likely did not want either.
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Weseyan alum:
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We got a welcoming vibe from Swarthmore and saw diverse groups of students interacting on campus. It’s listed at #4 on the JBHE list shared upthread.
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@yatuzo I would double check the numbers on the JBHE for colleges you’re interested in. The Harvey Mudd numbers have a pretty glaring mistake imo, their total enrollment is 905 from HMC website, not 231 which is probably the freshman numbers. The 41 Black/AA students is right, so the actual percentage is 4.5%, which is in line with the percent of Blacks in CA, if that is a factor.
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