<p>How diverse are most of the colleges today? I'll be going to Bucknell and not a lot of African-americans attend this school.</p>
<p>Most elite institutions are between 3 - 7% African-American. If you want true diversity, go to your flagship state university, urban unversity or HBCU.</p>
<p>How diverse colleges are depends greatly upon their locations. California public institutions are very diverse -- because California is a very diverse state, however at the top Calif. public universities, most of the diversity is an abundance of Asians because of who applies and the selection process.</p>
<p>When it comes to liberal arts colleges like Bucknell that are in the middle of nowhere, despite strong efforts to recruit minorities, they don't attract a lot, particularly URMs. That's because few URMs want to go to a college that is overwhelmingly not URM, is in a city in which there are few URMs, and lacks basics for URMs such as the type of entertainment that many URMs like, beauty supplies/hairdressers, etc. who know how to do things like style African American's hair, etc.</p>
<p>Larger cities have a higher number of Racial Diversity, I for one am going to attend an HBU which is high in diversity within the African-American Race. For example universities in NY will have a higher diversity number then a college in CO. DC vs. AZ and so on.</p>
<p>Your thread title is different from the question in your post. Anyway, here goes:</p>
<p>NSM is right on about rural areas being less diverse. I think some of it might be perception - it's easy to perceive an urban area as being more friendly towards diversity, even if there isn't a larger population of minorities. Some of that is because (not to be cheesy) diversity comes in many forms - immigration, ethnic, racial, socio-economic. Urban areas have much more variety that way. They might be perceived as being more close-minded.</p>
<p>As for colleges - simply, discrimination and lack of opportunities. They are overwhelmingly white, upper-middle class/upper class, and Christian or Jewish. There are a lot of people who are turned off in the selection process (believing that such colleges are for the wealthy or the white or whatever), or who just don't have the savvy to get into the uber-competitive schools. Read these threads - we all know what a game it is to get in anywhere. Money can be an issue - race and class are very highly correlated, and people in upper classes might be more willing to see education as an investment or to not mind taking on the debt for it. </p>
<p>I'll follow this up with two interesting statistics: black women make more money than similarly-educated white women, and one in six black men will be incarcerated during their lifetimes.</p>
<p>GWU has a lot of diversity for being a private school at 10% black. most schools r at like 6 or 7%</p>
<p>if you come from a HS where it was like 99% white, college will seem diverse. If you come from a high school like I did (45% white, ~40% black and hispanic, and the last 15% asian/pacific islander etc), then college will not be diverse.</p>
<p>I don't see how an HBCU is diverse. That's just a bunch of black people, same thing as a bunch of white people.</p>
<p>A HBCU is not at all diverse. </p>
<p>One of my issues with going to college is finding a black hair salon. I don't trust any other race with my hair. :)</p>
<p>A HBCU is not at all diverse. "</p>
<p>Not true. HBCUs have both diversity among the black students and faculty (such as having students from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds, students from different countries, etc.) and in terms of the other students and faculty who can include whites, nonblack internationals, etc.</p>
<p>Indeed, some HBCU are now majority white. An example is Bluefield state in W. Vir. Another example is Tenn. State. Some HBCUs have some departments or programs that have nonblacks as the majority of their students. An example is the physical therapy program at Florida A&M.</p>
<p>Some HBCUs also have exchange programs with mainstream colleges or allow mainstream college students to take courses there. An example is Florida A&M, which allows students from Florida State U to take courses at FAMU.</p>
<p>Northstarmom is right in diversity amoungst Blacks, however i don't understand why Whites attend HBCU's..but whatever,</p>
<p>What is a HBCU?</p>
<p>what college is that?</p>
<p>HBCU is the historically black colleges and universities</p>
<p>anyway.. i think that other African-Americans don't realize that their own race or attending schools that are mostly white and only aid those attending HBCU.</p>
<p>i am sorry ^^ i didn't understand that.. lol are you saying attending an HBCU is better then attending a PWI? or are you saying that attending an HBCU will not aid you as much as attending a PWI? i am confused</p>
<p>P.S. PWI = Pred. White Insitution</p>
<p>It sometimes depends on how a school defines diversity. It is not always about ethnicity, and certainly is not a black and white issue anymore. Gender, socio-economic and other issues can also be involved.</p>
<p>But as for AAs in college, some schools (especially LACs) fail to attract students of color because of name recognition, and more importantly, simply because students can't afford to attend. If colleges really want to attract more students of color, they have to office more attractive financial aid packages and they have to make their particular school sound more attractive. They also have to make a more concerted effort to go where the students of color are, i.e. statewide high school BSU conferences, national conferences like the National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE), Black Data Processing Associates (BDPA), etc. where organizations sponsor high school student mini-conferences and competitions.</p>
<p>If I was Dean of Admissions at a college that was truly interested in attracting qualified African American students, I would be partnering with the NSBE Pre-College Initiative (PCI) and Try-Math-A-Lon Competition <a href="http://www.nsbe.org/precollege/index.html%5B/url%5D">http://www.nsbe.org/precollege/index.html</a>, the BDPA Youth Technology Camp and High School Computer Competition at its national conference <a href="http://www.bdpa.org/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=140%5B/url%5D">http://www.bdpa.org/portal/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=92&Itemid=140</a>, NAACP ACT-SO and any number of other initiatives where African American high school student talent is showcased.</p>
<p>The Latino community has the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) and other organizations that have pre-colege initiatives.</p>
<p>But there still is the issue of name recognition. Many students of color simply don't know about LACs and other schools that are not an athletic powerhouse or culturally sensitive like HBCUs. Here in Silicon Valley, if you ask an African American student about college, he or she might mention the UCs and CSUs, Morehouse, Spelman, Howard, Hampton some of the better-known Ivys, Pac-10 or NCAA powerhouse in Football or Basketball, etc. but will know little about the Claremont colleges and other LACs around the country or non-athletic out-of-state schools.</p>
<p>There is no shortage of talented and achieving African American youth or other students of color, but even more affluent families can afford a $125k - $175k price tag for an undergraduate education.</p>
<p>Part II:</p>
<p>The other issue for students of color is retention. Once a college attracts a student, what will it take for that student to graduate? The graduation rate at some colleges is as low as 25%!</p>
<p>
[quote]
and one in six black men will be incarcerated during their lifetimes.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Their are more blacks in prison than there are in college.</p>
<p>One out of every three black males is in some phase of the correctional system.</p>
<p>Racial diversity is difficult to achieve at colleges for a number of reasons.</p>
<p>First of all, most American universities will ALWAYS be primarily white, because there are simply more whites than blacks, laintos, or asians in America, period. We're called "minorities" for a reason. Also, I'd like to point out that diversity doesn't come only in terms of racial variety. Even schools that are 75% or more white can house people of extremely diverse interests, personalities, backgrounds, and opinions--some of which may align with yours, even though you aren't white.</p>
<p>Secondly, many minorities do not have access to an education that fosters a desire to attend college. Many do not have relatives that have attended college and have little or no desire to, and recieve no push from family members or teachers. And those that do want to attend college often can't afford it or don't have the scores to compete with more priveledged children who could afford tutors, college counselors, and study guides.</p>
<p>Also, affirmative action has actually backfired somewhat on minorities because it has meant that minorities have been being accepted to colleges which they are not necessarily qualified to attend. This means that they are often in the bottom 50% of their class and struggle to keep up with their classmates. This system results in high drop out rates and low graduation rates for minorities, which makes the colleges less disposed to choose those minorities in the future because such low retention rates are bad for their ranking and stats.</p>
<p>::What is a flagship state university::</p>
<p>I believe it's the oldest/most heavily funded state public university in each state. For example, UC Berkeley (or is it UCLA?), UT Austin, UW Madison, UNC Chapel Hill, Penn State University Park, etc.</p>