Black Progress in Winning Professional Degree Awards

In the 2006-07 academic year, blacks earned 6,474 professional degrees. These made up 7.2 percent of all professional degrees awarded in the United States that year. These include degrees in medicine, law, dentistry, and several other fields.

More than 3,100 African Americans earned a law degree in the 2006-07 academic year, making up 7.3 percent of all law degree recipients. They were nearly half of all blacks who earned a professional degree. More than 1,100 black students earned a medical degree, making up 7.2 percent of all medical school graduates. Blacks made up more than 17 percent of all students who earned a professional degree in podiatry and nearly 14 percent of all students who won a professional degree in divinity.

However, blacks continue to have a very small presence in professional degree awards in dentistry, osteopathic medicine, optometry, chiropractic medicine, and veterinary medicine.

Copyright © 2009. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.