Diversity university: minority enrollment at predominantly white colleges is increasing.

RACIAL DIVERSITY AMONG FIRST-year students is increasing at Ivy League institutions and other high-ranking, predominantly white colleges and universities.

The number of first-year African American students for the 2005-2006 academic year increased at universities such as Vanderbilt, Princeton, and Columbia, according to "The Progress of Black Student Enrollments at the Nation's Highest-Ranked Colleges and Universities," a study by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education.

Of the 30 institutions supplying data, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill showed the highest percentage of African Americans among its first-year students at 11.1%, a 3% increase from 2004. At Princeton, blacks constituted more than 9.4% of first-year students, a more than 38% increase over the last year and the highest of any Ivy League university.

Bruce Slater, the journal's managing editor, says such significant gains are due to a combined effort by the institutions and the students. "The competition for top black students is very keen among these schools. Also, more and more black kids are taking advanced courses in high school and looking to apply to top colleges."

Several schools had poor enrollment of African American students. Only one black student was accepted at the California Institute of Technology in 2005, unchanged from the year prior.

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education has been conducting this survey since 1994. Over that time, the University of California, Berkeley has seen the most substantial drop in African American students (-39.7%). Vanderbilt University has seen the most significant growth (91.4%).

Admission of African Americans at Ivy League Universities,
Fall 2005

                                       Total
                           All       Students      Black
Institution             Applicants   Accepted    Applicants

Princeton University      16,510       1,807         **
Harvard University        22,796       2,098         **
Yale University           19,451       1,880       1,134
Columbia University       18,115       1,317       1,390
Dartmouth College         12,156       1,171
Univ. of Pennsylvania     18,824       3,913       1,219
Brown University          16,911       2,588       1,089
Cornell University        24,452       6,621       1,126

Institution              Accepted    Enrollees     Class

Princeton University        **             116      9.4%
Harvard University         221             153      9.3%
Yale University             **             112      9.2%
Columbia University         **             114      8.5%
Dartmouth College                           81      7.6%
Univ. of Pennsylvania      367             193      7.6%
Brown University           253              97      6.6%
Cornell University         410             175      5.6%

** DECLINED TO PROVIDE INFORMATION
TO THE JBHE RESEARCH DEPT.

Black Freshman Enrollment at the
Nation's Highest-Ranked Universities

                             Blacks in the    Percent Change
                             Freshman Class

                             1994    2005

    Vanderbilt University      70     134               91.4%
          Rice University      28      50               78.6%
Carnegie Melon University      45      79               75.6%
     Princeton University      79     116               46.8%
      Stanford University     114     156               36.8%
      Columbia University      85     114               34.1%
       Cornell University     134     175               30.6%
    Univ. of Pennsylvania     154     193               25.3%
    Georgetown University     103     121               17.5%
          Duke University     148     163               10.1%
       Harvard University     146     153                4.8%
  Northwestern University     123     114                0.8%
    Washington University      76      76                0.0%
   University of Virginia     320     319      -3.0%
         Brown University     101      97      -4.0%
         Emery University     115     110      -4.3%
        Dartmouth College      86      81      -4.7%
          Yale University     131     121      -7.6%
      Univ. of Notre Dame      15      66     -12.0%
Mass. Inst. of Technology      13      55     -24.1%
 Johns Hopkins University     123      75     -39.0%
  Univ. of Cal., Berkeley     214     129     -39.7%