Hampton University, Mississippi Valley State University, Dillard University, Alcorn State University, Kentucky State University, Bethune-Cookman University, North Carolina A&T State University, and Xavier University have all reported impressive gains in enrollments.
There are 1,862 Black students on campus. But they make up only 4.3 percent of the total student body. Black enrollments at the state’s flagship university are less than one half of what would be called for if racial parity were to prevail to the percentage of Blacks in the state’s population.
New data released by the university shows that there has been a significant drop in students of color from underrepresented groups. In 2015, students of color made up 28 percent of the entering class compared to 24 percent this year.
Florida Memorial University in Miami Gardens reports the largest entering class in the past six years and there are more new students at Harris-Stowe State University in St. Louis than at any time in the university’s history. For the first, time its residence halls are at full capacity.
According to U.S. News & World Report, the Medical University of South Carolina enrolls the fifth highest number of African American students among medical schools that are not considered historically Black institutions.
A new 188-page report from the U.S. Department of Education offers a wide-ranging summary of most of the important educational statistics on enrollment, financial aid, graduation rates, degree attainments etc. as they pertain to race all in one place.
While the number of Black students in the entering class at the University of Georgia is up 10 percent from a year ago, there is still a very long way to go before racial parity with the state’s Black population is achieved.
The data shows that in the 2014-15 academic year, there were 3,810,300 African Americans enrolled at degree-granting institutions in the United States. They made up 13.9 percent of the total enrollments in higher education.
The total number of Black students from California admitted to one or more undergraduate campuses of the University of California increased to 3,464 this year from 2,653 a year ago. This is a major increase of more than 30 percent.
Preliminary data for fall enrollments project a 5 percent increase in total enrollments from a year ago. The number of first-year students who have indicated their intention to enroll is up a significant 30 percent from 2015.
Applications are up 74 percent from last year. The university also reports that at this time, the number of confirmed new students is up 145 percent from a year ago.
Black students make up 11.4 percent of all students in the Class of 2020. This is the highest percentage of Black students in any entering class in Harvard’s 380-year history.
Recently, the nation’s highest-ranked colleges and universities informed applicants if they had been accepted for admission. Some of the nation’s most selective institutions provided acceptance data broken down by race and ethnic group.
The goal of the initiative is to increase the number of Black students and faculty on campus and to make the campus environment more welcoming to African Americans. The latest Education Department data shows that Blacks make up just one percent of the undergraduate student body.
A full quarter of all applicants to Harvard this year had their application fee waived due to financial hardship. Some 10.6 percent of all applicants are African Americans.
The Achieve UC program targeted 12,000 students at high schools with large underrepresented minority student bodies with programs to guide them through the admission and financial aid processes. The program is being expanded this year to target 60,000 minority students.
Yale reports that over the past four years, the number of applications it has received from all U.S. high school students has increased by 5 percent. But during the same period, the number of applicants it has received from African American students is up 36 percent.
This year, 6,589 African Americans applied to one or more University of California undergraduate campuses. They make up 6.3 percent of all students who applied for places at the university. This up from 6.1 percent last year and 5.9 percent two years ago.
The data shows that the number of Black applicants to U.S. dental schools has declined by 7.5 percent over the past four years. In 2014, Blacks were 4.3 percent of all new students enrolling in U.S. dental schools. This is down slightly from recent years.
Several of the nation’s highest ranked colleges and universities have reported data on students they have accepted under early decision or early action admissions plans. Some have provided data broken down by race.
In 2014, there were 2,726,098 African Americans enrolled in U.S. higher education. They made up 13.2 percent of all enrollments. There were nearly a quarter million fewer African American students enrolled in higher education than was the case in 2011, a decline of 8 percent.
In the 2013-14 academic year, there were 31,113 students from sub-Saharan Africa enrolled at colleges and universities in the United States. They made up 3.5 percent of the 886,052 foreign students at U.S. colleges and universities.
In October 2014, there were 1,802,000 Black women enrolled in all levels of higher education in the United States, compared to 1,132,000 Black men. Thus, women made up 61.4 percent of all African American enrollments.
African American students make up 5.1 percent of the entering first-year class this fall. But in order for racial parity with the state’s population to prevail, the number of Black students in the entering class at the would have to nearly triple.
In 2015, the number of Black applicants to U.S. medical schools was up a whopping 16.8 percent from 2014. Blacks were 7.6 percent of all medical school matriculants in 2015. This was up from 6.9 percent in 2014.
More than 30 percent of African Americans over the age of 3 are enrolled in school at some level compared to 22 percent of Whites. But Whites still hold an edge in college enrollments, particularly among men.
There are 165 second-year students on campus this year who matriculated last fall. This is 60.2 percent of last year’s entering class of 274 students. A year ago the retention rate was 43.7 percent.
The Rutgers University campus in Newark, New Jersey, was deemed to have the most diverse student body in the country among large national universities. Blacks make up 18 percent of the enrollments at the Newark campus.
Blacks are 5.3 percent of the first-year class at the University of Texas at Austin, up from 4.2 percent a year ago. At the University of Colorado at Boulder, the number of African American undergraduates students is up 8 percent from a year ago.
The African American Male Initiative aims to connect its more than 40 students to academic support services on campus. It also is working in tandem with student organizations, student affairs, and the Athens community to establish a welcoming environment that young Black males can call home.
Last week a JBHE post reported some good news on enrollments at several historically Black colleges and universities. Since that time, several other HBCUs have also reported some good news on enrollments.
The University of California has announced its new diversity initiative, a comprehensive effort to address the underrepresentation of African American students, faculty, and staff at the university.
Purdue University has initiated the new Diversity Transformation Award program that will enlist current faculty and staff members to come up with strategies to further increase the diversity of the faculty and the student body.
Dr. Brandon Dumas, vice chancellor for student affairs and enrollment management at Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, has set in motion plans to recruit and retain more students. His efforts have begun to pay off.
The Leadership Alliance Mellon Initiative seeks to encourage students from underrepresented minority groups to pursue graduate studies in the humanities, education, and social sciences.
There were 3,954,120 Black or African American students who were enrolled in higher education during the 2013-14 academic year. They made up 14.2 percent of all enrollments. Black enrollments were down 3.1 percent from the previous year.
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