Black Undergraduate Enrollments at the Nation’s 30 Highest-Ranked Universities

New data on total undergraduate enrollments was recently released by the U.S. Department of Education. The statistics, which give a breakdown on students by race, show that in the fall of 2005 there were 17,931 black undergraduate students enrolled at the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities. Similar data for the fall of 2004 showed 17,787 black students at these universities. Thus, there was less than a one percent increase in black enrollments at these institutions.

In the fall of 2005 there were 1,834 black students at the University of Michigan, the largest number among the 30 highest-ranked universities. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill came in a close second with 1,811 black undergraduate students. The University of Virginia and the University of Southern California were the only other high-ranking universities with more than 1,000 black undergraduates.

Among the Ivy League schools, the University of Pennsylvania led its peers with 822 black undergraduates. Dartmouth, with 279 black undergraduates, had the smallest number of black students in the Ivy League.

The University of Chicago and CalTech were the only institutions among the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities that had fewer than 200 black undergraduate students. There were 192 black undergraduates at the University of Chicago and only seven at CalTech.

JBHE’s data on black freshman students at the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities for the fall of 2006 suggests that when data for all undergraduates in 2006 is released, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will surpass the University of Michigan as the leader in enrolling black undergraduate students. There are 470 black freshmen at Chapel Hill this year. Black freshman enrollments at the University of Michigan were down sharply this year to 330.

Copyright © 2006. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.