Five of the Nation’s 30 Highest-Ranked Universities Have Freshman Classes That Are at Least 10 Percent Black

Once more, this year The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has completed its survey of black freshman students at the nation’s highest-ranked research universities. For the fourth year in a row, Columbia has the highest percentage of black freshman students among the 30 highest-ranking universities in the nation. There are 202 black freshmen at Columbia this fall. They make up 14.5 percent of the incoming class.

Going back to 2004, the percentage of blacks in the freshman class at Columbia has increased from 6.8 percent to 14.5 percent. The number of black freshmen has more than doubled since 2004. The Columbia freshman class is a record for the JBHE survey. Until now, not one of the 30 highest-ranked universities has ever had a freshman class that was more than 14 percent black in the 18-year history of the JBHE survey.

Second on the JBHE list is Vanderbilt University. Blacks make up 11.2 percent of the incoming class. At Stanford the 186 black students are 11.1 percent of all freshmen. Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill had first-year classes that were at least 10 percent black. This is only the second time in the 18-year history of the JBHE survey where five of the top 30 research universities had freshman classes that are at least 10 percent black.

For a complete listing of this year’s results, click here.

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