<p>My kids have grown up in a similar environment. Their K-12 schools have been incredibly diverse. We have visited a lot of colleges and I have also been acutely aware of how some schools seemed more segregated than others. A few thoughts, though:</p>
<p>*Sometimes people self-segregate because of shared interests, not because of their skin color. Athletes are a good example of this. Football players train and hang out together. So do swimmers,lacrosse players, and other groups. If they all have similar racial backgrounds, they will appear to be segregating by race, when in fact their primary “selection” into a group is their athletic interest. Race is just incidental.</p>
<p>*Sometimes it’s not the majority excluding minority groups, but the minority groups wanting to stay together because of a perception of shared understanding.</p>
<p>*I have observed more integration at small LACs (not the ones you mention) than at larger U’s. When there is not a critical mass of “like” people, they end up in the mix with everyone else. At bigger universities, it’s easier to find a lot of people with your same background. At my son’s small southern LAC, there are kids from Africa, China, South America, etc. (along with American minorities) and they are integrated into campus life (although the international students have their own bond, in part created by often being stuck on campus for holiday breaks). </p>
<p>At the state flagship where I used to work, there were not only large social groups of Asians (subdivided into Chinese, Taiwanese, Korean, Indian, etc.) but also smaller groups from other places (including a small group of Italians I used to see every day in the cafe in my building). They would travel in packs speaking their own language. I can’t say whether they ever “mingled” but it would have been easy for them not to. </p>
<p>*If you want diversity, join the arts. At least in our experience, dance and theater tend to attract a wide range of students of many different backgrounds.</p>
<p>*In general, liberal campus environments seem to encourage inclusion. Some of the Catholic schools we have visited also seem fairly integrated. A lot of colleges have a more friendly vibe than others overall.</p>
<p>I think it’s important to have your child visit colleges she is interested in for an overnight to see whether she feels accepted. It’s easy to make superficial observations but oftentimes they don’t tell the whole story.</p>