Comments on: Black colleges to recruit in Oakland tomorrow

By: oak261

oak261 — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 17:16:50 +0000

Here is interesting data that students should know. From “The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education”

http://www.jbhe.com/features/50_blackstudent_gradrates.html

“…We come now to a most disappointing set of statistics. The graduation rate of African-American students at the nation’s historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) tends to be much lower than the graduation rate for black students at the nation’s highest-ranked institutions. Yet the graduation rate at a significant number of HBCUs is well above the nationwide average for black student graduations, which, as stated earlier, currently stands at an extremely low rate of 42 percent….”

It seems that one thing to look for is a college that has a higher graduation rate, all other things being equal (I know, they’re rarely equal.)

By: Nextset

Nextset — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 21:43:12 +0000

The HBCs offer something valuable for the black students they just can’t get from the CA state schools. My concern is the costs. I don’t think the government can (politically/economically) justify the subsidies anymore so the long term prospects of these places are dim. Also the cost to the students in dollars and debt if they pay their way are significant enough to give pause. But they can be worth every penney in individual cases.

A friend’s daughter is on a full scholarship at Howard after (expensive) Catholic High school. The change from CA to Howard and Washington DC has worked out very well for her. But she wouldn’t have obtained that scholarship if not for the “value added” she got from her private high school. I believe her ability to function on the SATs, do college level writing, and willingness to cross the country at 18 having no relatives and no history in DC is a product of that high school which cost her parents plenty and which she did not want to go to when enrolled. Her black friends from public grade school went on to public high school – the Catholic High School was non-black – and she complained she’d not be comfortable there. Her parents wanted her to not get too comfortable and the parents got second jobs to pay for it.

And now she’s in Howard and has worked in her congressman’s office here and there. She’s doing well and I’m happy for all of them. She’s also dealing with serious black competition for the first time. Previously she was always one of the few blacks in her academic classes.

And that’s the interesting thing. Blacks in higher education are thinly spread. HBCs concentrate them. Failing isn’t pretty at all anymore as there are other black folks waiting in line to take every A, every scholarship, every grad school post and every internship, job & every social advantage you don’t take. The competitive & creative juices flow and not just for football.

Then they marry each other’s siblings…

Brave New World.

By: TheTruthHurts

TheTruthHurts — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:54:59 +0000

I heard this was very well-attended event. Hopefully, that bodes well for the future of the institutions and the students.

By: Nextset

Nextset — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 00:59:15 +0000

How successful was this event?

I wonder how much longer these schools will be kept in business. The only way they survive is by race-preference exemptions on their student loan default rates. If a non-HBC had delinquency rates as high as the HBCs they would lose the ability to have federally insured student loans.

Their strong suits were the ability to feed their undergrads into grad schools – in previous years anyway. Is that still true?