50 Top Colleges for African Americans

of less than 50%, because they benefited from having higher black enrollment numbers.

Celebrating its 125th anniversary, Spelman has consistently ranked in the top five of our listing. “After attending a predominantly white school all of my life, I chose to go to Spelman College for the social change,” says Aarica J. Blackett, a third-year economics major. “My senior year in high school, I was a debutante for the Links Incorporated. The more and more I bonded with these girls, the more I realized how much potential I had to become more than what I was.” More than 83% of full-time Spelman faculty hold doctoral degrees. In addition, the school offers rich cultural programs such as The Sumiko Takahara Japan Studies Program, in which students can study Japanese history and culture.

According to Thomas A. LaVeist, Ph.D., CEO of DayStar Research and the compiler of the list, the reason for so many changes has less to do with any one variable than with the combination of all of the new adjustments. Several historically black colleges and universities, such as Johnson C. Smith and Clark Atlanta universities, which had been on the list since its inception in 1999, didn’t make the cut.

CRUNCHING THE NUMBERS
To develop the 2006 be 50 Top Colleges for African Americans list, we surveyed more than 500 African American higher education professionals including presidents, chancellors, and directors of student affairs for their assessments of the social and academic environments for African American students at the nation’s colleges and universities.

A total of 1,423 colleges met our criteria based on their status as accredited four-year colleges with African American student enrollments of at least 3%. In addition, schools needed to have enrollment data submitted with the U.S. Department of Education. Each school was rated on a five-point scale from 1 (strongly recommend) to 5 (strongly don’t recommend).

The schools were sorted into seven categories: historically black colleges and universities, national universities, national liberal arts colleges, regional universities in the Northeast and Midwest, regional universities in the South and West, regional liberal arts colleges in the Northeast and Midwest, and regional liberal arts colleges in the South and West. The list was derived using the following variables:

Black student graduation rate
Average survey score for the school’s academic environment
Average survey score for the school’s social environment
Total black undergraduate enrollment
Black undergraduate students as a percentage of total undergraduates (credit for this variable was capped at 50% for hbcus)
Ranking on the 2004 BE Top Colleges list

The criteria was established by be and Thomas A. LaVeist, Ph.D., CEO of DayStar Research. The variables given the heaviest weighting were black graduation rate, followed by the average academic and social environment scores.

2006 Rank	Colleges & Universities City, State	Web Address	Social Score	Academic Score	Total Undergrad Enrollment	Black Undergrad. Enrollment	Black Grad. Rate	Type of School	Tuition In /Out of State*
1	Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, FL	www.famu. edu	44.2	43.8	11,450	10,731	46%	Public	$2,958/ $14,949
2	Howard University, Washington, DC	www. howard. edu	43.3	42.6	7,112	5,975	62	Private	12,295
3	North Carolina A&T State Univ., Greensboro, NC	www.ncat.edu	42.0	41.6	9,121	8,409	43	Public	3,114/ 12,556
4	Harvard University, Cambridge, MA	www.harvard. edu	36.4	45.9	9,519	641	97	Private	32,097
5	Spelman College, Atlanta, GA	www.spelman. edu	43.2	43.0	2,186	2,058	77	Private	15,945
6	Hampton University, Hampton, VA	www. hamptonu. edu	42.8	41.5	5,315	4,980	54	Private	14,182
7	Stanford University, Stanford, CA	www. stanford. edu	35.7	45.4	6,555	698	92	Private	31,200
8	Columbia University, New York, NY	www. columbia. edu	36.2	42.1	7,233	511	90	Private	33,246
9	University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA	www. upenn. edu	36.8	43.6	11,958	790	90	Private	32,364
10	Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT	www. wesleyan. edu	38.6	47.1	2,777	190	90	Private	32,976
11	Dickinson College, Carlisle, PA	www. dickinson. edu	38.3	43.3	2,321	88	100	Private	32,120
12	Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA	www. wellesley. edu	38.0	42.0	2,289	135	95	Private	31,348
13	Amherst College, Amherst, MA	www. amherst. edu	38.9	45.6	1,640	148	91	Private	32,395
14	Duke University, Durham, NC	www. duke. edu	34.7	43.1	6,301	682	86	Private	31,420
15	Smith College, Northampton, MA	www. smith. edu	43.3	43.3	2,692	153	95	Private	30,754
16	Barnard College, New York, NY	www. barnard. edu	38.6	40.0	2,287	112	100	Private	30,676
17	Tennessee State University, Nashville, TN	www. tnstate. edu	40.0	39.6	7,257	5,896	47	Public	4,414/ 13,726
18	Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA	www.gsu. edu	35.2	34.2	19,889	6,765	48	Public	4,464/ 15,378
19	Brown University, Providence, RI	www. brown. edu	36.7	43.5	6,014	383	93	Private	32,974
20	Yale University, New Haven, CT	www.yale. edu	34.2	45.8	5,319	413	92	Private	31,460
21	Georgetown University, Washington, DC	www.georgetown. edu	36.6	42.6	6,522	424	85	Private	32,024

22	Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, NC	www. wfu. edu	40.0	42.9	4,128	249	89	Private	30,210
23	Babson College, Wellesley, MA	www. babson. edu	38.3	37.1	1,697	56	100	Private	30,496
24	Williams College, Williamstown, MA	www.williams. edu	37.5	43.8	1,991	192	86	Private	31,548
25	Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL	www.fsu. edu	35.2	35.5	30,373	3,607	68	Public	3,208/ 16,340
26	Cornell University, Ithaca, NY	www. cornell. edu	31.2	41.5	13,625	634	88	Private	31,467
27	Prairie View A&M University, Prairie View, TX	www. pvamu. edu	38.8	38.8	6,324	5,795	46	Public	4,906/ 13,186
28	Jackson State University, Jackson, MS	www. jsums. edu	40.0	38.5	6,605	6,388	40	Public	3,964/ 8,872
29	Oberlin College, Oberlin, OH	www. oberlin. edu	41.1	47.8	2,837	175	78	Private	32,724
30	North Carolina Central University, Durham, NC	www.nccu. edu	38.1	40.0	6,028	5,182	50	Public	3,778/ 13,522
31	Mills College, Oakland, CA	www. mills. edu	42.0	43.3	762	68	89	Private	29,990
32	University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC	www. unc. edu	37.6	40.0	16,525	1,794	70	Public	4,613/ 18,411
33	Grinnell College, Grinnell, IA	www. grinnell. edu	38.3	44.0	1,556	61	91	Private	27,060
34	Morgan State University, Baltimore, MD	www. morgan. edu	40.4	38.8	6,243	5,782	39	Public	6,110/ 13,520
35	University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA	www. virginia. edu	30.6	41.9	14,129	1,193	87	Public	7,370/ 24,290
36	Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA	www. mtholyoke. edu	41.3	45.0	2,143	88	82	Private	32,598
37	Emory University, Atlanta, GA	www. emory. edu	38.6	42.1	6,346	585	78	Private	30,794
38	Princeton University, Princeton, NJ	www. princeton. edu	32.8	44.4	4,678	385	90	Private	31,450
39	Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, PA	www. swarthmore. edu	38.6	48.6	1,474	96	82	Private	31,516
40	University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI	www. umich.edu	37.1	42.5	24,828	1,875	69	Public	9,213/ 27,601

41	Temple University, Philadelphia, PA	www. temple. edu	37.3	37.3	23,429	4,666	53	Public	9,640/ 17,236
42	Washington University, St. Louis, MO	www.wustl. edu	33.7	36.3	7,350	691	90	Private	32,042
43	Davidson College, Davidson, NC	www. davidson.edu	31.4	44.3	1,714	107	91	Private	28,667
44	Simmons College, Boston, MA	www. simmons.edu	37.5	42.0	1,874	121	88	Private	24,880
45	Morehouse College, Atlanta, GA	www. morehouse. edu	41.5	42.6	2,891	2,731	49	Private	16,016
46	Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD	www.jhu.edu	35.0	43.0	5,710	472	81	Private	31,620
47	Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH	www. dartmouth. edu	30.4	40.4	4,079	274	91	Private	31,770
48	Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY	www.vassar. edu	36.7	44.2	2,475	128	83	Private	33,800
49	Northwestern University, Evanston, IL	www. northwestern. edu	30.5	38.6	9,115	498	90	Private	31,789
50	University of Maryland, College Park, MD	www.umd. edu	36.7	37.5	25,140	3,047	57	Public	7,821/ 20,145

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FEATURE
Special Report
50 Top Colleges for African Americans
Guide to College Financing

Now that you know the 50 top Colleges for African Americans, how do you go about paying for such top-notch educations? This was certainly an issue for Michael Adams and his family. Before Michael enrolled at Princeton University, his parents sat down to figure out how they were going to afford the $31,000-a-year college education.

“We worked out a budget. My salary goes to paying his schooling and his sister’ school loans,” says Karen Adams, while her husband, Edward, covers the household bills. “We were sending Michael to private high school, so we couldn’t really save anything,” Karen explains.

To prevent students from graduating with thousands of dollars in debt, Princeton funds education primarily through grants and offers loans only to parents. Karen admits that she was initially surprised by the school’s “Graduate Debt Free” promise, “but the way they have it set up, and how they handle financial aid compared to other schools, is pretty good,” she says.

The Adamses took out $80,000 in loans to divide over four years. They make a monthly payment of $628 because Princeton doesn’t allow parents to defer payment.

While Michael was still in middle school, the Adamses paid off their home using money from Karen’s 403(b) in preparation for his private schooling. “I know you’re not supposed to do that, but I knew I would pay myself back,” Karen says.

Although using retirement money to pay