Pros and Cons of HBCUs

Parents Forum
81

For those considering HBCUs , I would keep in mind the major and the school. For example, if your child in considering Business, then I would say Howard hands down. The kids have their picks of the best internships including the big accounting and Wall Street firms.

If you would say Engineering, I would say NCAT is tops, followed byTennessee State and Tuskegee.

I also know two successful engineers from Howard who are both in grad school now being paid for by their post undergrad employers.

When I was in school way back when , most the kids at HBCUs had jobs at graduation, a lot of us at PWIs did not.

As I mentioned my daughter had great internships, so many that she was turning them down. Even today she has 2-3 recruiters each month hitting her up in LinkedIn and she hasn’t been out of a school for a year yet.

Honestly the best experience seems to be HBCU undergrad, top tier grad school. You get the best of both networks.

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I’d say that’s a goal for many schools, HBCUs included.

Yup.

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@OHMomof2
How sad and short sighted of them.

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Why is a goal of going to an elite grad school sad or shortsighted, @VANDEMORY1342 ?

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“The freedom to go to any school we want was because of the efforts of HBCU alums (Thurgood Marshall, MLK, The A&T 4, Medger Evers and on and on.).” @ChangeTheGame

Love this quote. I’m very grateful for the efforts and accomplishments HBCUS and their alums have done for all African Americans.

86

A post-racial world is probably very long term, given current trends. In a post-racial world, non-black students would not automatically reject HBCUs. As it is now, most HBCUs, even those with comprehensive academic offerings and big scholarship offerings, are only able to market themselves to a small percentage of potential college students (i.e. those who are black – but black students may also consider other schools and may be actively recruited by some), because most potential college students are unwilling to attend a school with mostly black students.

A post-racial world may actually strengthen and grow HBCUs, because non-black students would be more willing to attend them, so that they would be less concerned about under-enrollment and derived issues.

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@ucbalumnus I think you could be right once our society gets to a post-racial world, but I think the shedding may occur along the way with the most financially vulnerable HBCUs cutting their losses 1st. I also think some may find a way to consolidate resources and downsize, but I have counted out some struggling HBCUs in the past and they still find a way to hang on for another year.

@SuperGymnast_04 I am also very grateful for the opportunities that I had and now my children have. We honor those giants when we take advantage of the opportunities presented from their sacrifice.

@partyof5 When I visited NC&AT recently I was shocked by the number of jobs that our tour guide already had in the bag (Microsoft, Intel, and was waiting back for an offer from Google). I remembered some recruiting back in my day, but don’t remember anyone having job offers like that by February of senior year.

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@ChangeTheGame Yes , I think NCAT is a great school for STEM majors. I also know kids at Spelman, who got internships at google and Facebook freshman year.

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My post #39 is my way of cheer leading for NC A&T. As a NC resident I know what a treasure A&T is and what a great value for the cost of their education also is.
http://www.ncat.edu/academics/majors-minors/index.html
“North Carolina A&T offers 117 undergraduate degree programs and 29 choices in minors.”
They offer an animal science degree that meets the pre-vet requirements often found lacking in other programs…specific prerequisites for vet school. http://www.ncat.edu/caes/agresearch/undergraduate-research-program/index.html

Also an architectural engineering degree seen at just a few schools such as Cal Poly SLO.

They have a new nano-science and nano engineering school…http://www.ncat.edu/jsnn/index.html.
“JSNN is a $56.3 million, 105,000 square foot state-of -the-art science and engineering research building with nanoelectronics and nanobio clean rooms, nanoengineering and nanoscience laboratories and extensive materials analysis facilities. JSNN’s characterization capability includes a suite of microscopes from Carl Zeiss SMT®, including the only Orion Helium Ion microscope in the southeast. Also a visualization center allows three-dimension imaging for modeling of nanotechnology problems.”

The school currently offers graduate degrees however, mech e’s can take classes early and apply to MS and PhD later as well.

http://www.ncat.edu/divisions/business-and-finance/comptroller/treasurer/treas-assets/treas-off-forms/2017-2018/17-18_summary_tuition_fees.pdf

4,533.16 per semester in-state tuition and fees
10,978.16 per semester in-state tuition and fees
room and board can vary based on lodging and meal plan

And again, their engineering school is ABET. In comparison UCH-CH has no engineering school, NC State has the engineering school and is an entirely different campus/program. HUGE campus, tons of students and freshman are admitted to the “pre-engineering” program/major. After maintaining a high GPA and passing the “pre-engineering” core (Calc 1 and calc 2, physics+…) then the student is admitted to an engineering major as long as it isn’t impacted and your admittance is based on others who are also hoping to matriculate, so it is NOT guaranteed.

A&T has direct admittance for engineering, small classes, great profs, great office hours, research if you want it, projects, internships…Son was very happy compared to his friends from high school who stayed in NCSU’s “pre-engineering” spot for YEARS, never did move into the school of engineering and some moved to different schools within the university and others had to transfer to different universities in order to graduate, 5 and 6 years later. Son’s peers at A&T had job offers well before graduation as he did.

A&T is one of the 17 campuses within the UNC system. Similiar in concept to the UC system, but many started out as private institutions and as time passed were absorbed into the UNC system while maintaining their history, past and uniqueness of the school. A small school within a large powerhouse of resources.

We as a family were very appreciative of the opportunities son was given at A&T.

Kat

ps note: Very familiar with NCSU as I had 2 other children graduate from NCSU with STEM degrees, micro bio, biochem and genetics. Also keep in mind no UNC campus may have more than 18% OOS students, so the competition for spots for OOS sudents is more selective than in-state just based on the numbers.

1 Like
90

@kawkittens Yes, A&T is definitely a fabulous school period and is the largest HBCU in the world for a reason!

I’m very impressed with the growth of the school, the band, the beautiful campus, their stellar academic programs, their stellar athletic programs, and that Aggie Pride.

A&T is so much more than STEM and I highly encourage every potential college student of the African Diaspora to look into the school to see if there’s a connection.

91

So glad to see PBS make “Tell Them We Are Rising” available for free streaming. The film is fantastic.

http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/tell-them-we-are-rising/

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@Hanna My family watched the film and I think I saw the light bulb go off in my son’s head for the 1st time about why school is so important. He has always done well, but he never truly understood why an occasional B was not okay with me when he could make an A with just a little more effort (especially since he puts in literally no effort). The Booker T. Washington vs W.E.B. Dubois debate has been touched on in this thread in some ways (role of HBCUs) so the film was very timely.

93

In a post racial world people of all races proudly attend HBCUs :slight_smile:

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@PackersLA That is a beautiful sentiment that I believe will one day be reality.