Harvard Tops Latino List

After three straight years in third place, Harvard jumped to the top of Hispanic Magazine’s annual ranking of top colleges for Latinos.

The Florida-based magazine’s March article balanced standard criteria from the popular college rankings by U.S. News and World Report with factors such as Hispanic enrollment rate and the number of Hispanic cultural organizations on campus, according to the article.

Fellow Ivy League schools Princeton and Yale finished second and fourth respectively. Stanford, which has finished first in each of the past five years, fell to sixth on the list of 25 colleges.

Harvard recently admitted a record number of Hispanic applicants, as individuals of Hispanic origin composed 9.8 percent of this year’s admitted class, up from 8.2 percent last year.

However, Latinos are still underrepresented at Harvard relative to the overall population. Latinos compose 14 percent of the U.S. population, according to U.S. Census Bureau statistics from 2004, the last year for which data are available.

Dean of Undergraduate Admissions and Financial Aid William R. Fitzsimmons ’67 said last week that Harvard’s expanded financial aid program played a role in the increased diversity of the admitted Class of 2010.

The Harvard Financial Aid Initiative, which previously eliminated parental contributions from families earning less than $40,000, raised the threshold to $60,000 starting next academic year.

Colleges’ affordability and the proportion of students on financial aid were part of the Hispanic Magazine ranking criteria, according to the magazine article.

Shirley V. Cardona ’06, who works for the Undergraduate Minority Recruitment Program, said she was pleased with Harvard’s ranking.

“I definitely think it’s the best college for Latinos,” she said. “There’s a sense of being at home here.”

Christina L. Anderson ’08, president of Fuerza Latina, also agreed with the magazine’s assessment.

“Harvard offers a welcoming and supportive Latino community,” she said.

Cardona and Anderson said that despite reaching Hispanic Magazine’s number one ranking, Harvard needs to maintain interest in Latino issues, such as recruiting Hispanic professors.

Saying that diversity statistics played a role in her decision to come to Harvard, Anderson also emphasized the importance of continuing to increase the size of the College’s minority community.

Hispanic Magazine, which has a circulation of 280,000 according to its website, could not be reached for comment yesterday.