High-Ranking Universities Are Making Great Progress in Increasing Black Enrollments

Each autumn JBHE surveys the admissions offices of the nation’s high-ranking universities to determine the number of black first-year students at these institutions. Our database permits us to examine the enrollment trends to see which high-ranking universities are making the most progress in increasing the number of black students on campus.

Of the 27 high-ranking universities for which we have data, 23 showed an increase in black first-year enrollments over the past decade.

The largest increase in both actual numbers and in percentage terms occurred at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee. Black first-year enrollments have increased more than 160 percent during the period.

Johns Hopkins University, Columbia University, Tufts University, and the University of California at Los Angeles all showed gains in black first-year enrollments of more than 60 percent over the 1998 to 2007 period.

Particularly good news is the major increases in black enrollments at MIT and Carnegie Mellon, two universities where many students concentrate in science and engineering.

Copyright © 2008. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.