A Surge in Black Freshman Enrollments at the University of Virginia

Fifteen years ago, when JBHE began conducting its annual survey of enrollments of black first-year students at the nation’s highest-ranking universities, the University of Virginia placed on top of the rankings in each of the first five years. Over the next several years, black enrollments decreased. But in recent years, the university has shown an increased effort to boost black enrollments.

The University of Virginia reports that the incoming class of 2011 will be the most diverse in the university’s history. More than one third of the first-year students at the university identify themselves either as minority or international students. The previous high, in 2004, was 30 percent.

There will be 367 black freshmen at UVA this fall, the second-highest number in school history and a 33 percent increase from a year ago. Blacks make up 11.2 percent of the entering class. The freshman class at the University of Virginia last fall was 8.4 percent black.

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