Harvard Ranks Ninth for Black Students

This month’s issue of Black Enterprise magazine has named Harvard ninth on its list of 50 Best Colleges & Universities for African Americans, ranking only behind schools with historically large black populations as well as Columbia and Stanford.

Harvard has risen in the rankings dramatically since the survey was first instituted five years ago. In the 1999 survey, Harvard was ranked 28th. In following years, Harvard climbed to 19th and 11th before it broke into the top 10 this year.

Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga. achieved the top spot this year as well as in 2003 and 2001. Spelman College, a women’s college also in Atlanta, received the second spot on the list. Spelman had previously reached the top ranking in 1999.

Columbia, which placed eighth, is the only Ivy-league school ranked above Harvard. Harvard is the third highest-ranked East Coast college. Yale is ranked 38th, and Brown is ranked 41st. Princeton and Dartmouth did not make the list.

Thomas LaVeist, a Johns Hopkins University professor, conducted the survey in collaboration with Black Enterprise. The survey only considered accredited four-year colleges that were well-known or had an African-American population of at least three percent. From the 482 eligible colleges, Black Enterprise polled 1,855 black higher education professionals about the social and educational environment of the schools.

“They do a very objective job of measuring attitudes of African Americans throughout the nation. I think [the survey] is to be taken seriously,” said Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations.

Counter said that Harvard’s improvement was the result of tangible efforts to make the University more friendly to black students.

“We have redoubled our efforts to make this community more appealing by putting on programs that empower them and help create an environment that is appreciated by them,” he said.

According to Counter, these programs have included bringing prominent black celebrities and academics to the campus. Last year, the Harvard Foundation brought James Earl Jones, Jr. to speak to campus.

Lawrence E. Adjah ’06, president of the Black Students Association, said that Harvard’s Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program’s and strong black alumni network directly contributed to its rise in the rankings.

This past spring the Office of Admissions reported that 70 percent of African-American applicants offered a spot in the class of 2008 accepted, an increase from the 66.5 percent yield from the previous year.

About 9 percent of those who accepted admission to the class of 2008 were African Americans.

But Counter said that there is still room for Harvard to improve.

He said there was a “very significant paucity of black and Latino professors and administrators. Students have observed that and brought that to my attention.”

Adjah was cautiously optimistic about the news. “I don’t think it is something we should get complacent about,” he said.