Amherst Leads the High-Ranking Liberal Arts Colleges in the Percentage of Freshmen Who Are Black

For the previous 15 years JBHE has gathered black student admissions data on the highest-ranked liberal arts colleges. Over this long period, there have been five occasions in which Amherst College in western Massachusetts has reported the highest percentage of black freshmen.

This year Amherst once again leads the rankings. There are 49 black freshmen at Amherst College this year, making up 11.2 percent of the entering class. Amherst has maintained its top ranking from a year ago despite the fact that the number of black freshmen at the college is slightly lower than was the case in 2007.

Williams College, also in western Massachusetts, placed second with a freshman class that is 10.4 percent black.

This year blacks are 10.2 percent of the entering class at Swarthmore. This places Swarthmore third in our survey.