What are best historically Black colleges in the country? Here are latest rankings

Simone Jasper
·3 min read

As historically Black colleges and universities start a new school year, a list ranks the best in the country.

Spelman College, which serves women in Atlanta, was named the top HBCU in the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings. The school also ranked No. 54 in the nation for liberal arts colleges, according to results released Sunday.

Also rounding out the top five HBCUs were:

  • No. 2: Howard University in Washington, D.C.

  • No. 3: Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans

  • No. 4: Tuskegee University in Alabama

  • No. 5: Hampton University in Virginia

To come up with its findings, U.S. News & World Report says it examined 79 eligible schools and weighed “measures that education experts have proposed as reliable indicators of academic quality, and U.S. News’ view of what matters in education.”

In the report, the “academic quality” features officials examined were: “outcome measures, graduate indebtedness, assessment by administrators at peer HBCUs, faculty resources, financial resources, student excellence and alumni giving.”

The results come as some historically Black colleges have seen a rise in interest in recent years.

In 2017-18, fall enrollment for all HBCUs rose 2% from the previous year and topped 298,000, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

At the time, schools credited the upticks to recent outreach efforts as well as students’ desire to find safe places to learn in an era of racial tension, The Washington Post reported.

But after seeing the enrollment increase, the total number of students attending HBCUs had fallen nationwide.

From fall 2017 to fall 2018, enrollment was down by more than 6,000, according to the most recent data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.

“The number of HBCU students increased 47 percent, from 223,000 to 327,000 students, between 1976 and 2010, then decreased 11 percent, to 292,000 students, between 2010 and 2018,” officials say.

Among all higher learning institutions, there was a 7% drop in enrollment from 2010 to 2018, data show.

But there are some bright spots for HBCUs.

Last year, Grammy-winning singer Beyoncé captured the attention of Spelman students when she honored historically Black schools in a documentary about the Coachella music festival, MarketWatch reported. Prominent HBCU graduates, such as Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris, also have put a renewed focus on the educational institutions.

And this month, billionaire Michael Bloomberg became among the latest to say he would back the schools when he pledged $100 million for four HBCU medical programs through his organization Bloomberg Philanthropies, CNBC reported.

Spelman and nearby Clark Atlanta University saw increased applications for the 2020-21 school year, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported in June. But some schools expected lower enrollment for the fall semester due to the coronavirus, according to the newspaper.

The National Center for Education Statistics as of 2018 reported 101 HBCUs nationwide. The schools were started to provide educational opportunities to Black students at a time when many colleges wouldn’t allow them to attend.

Today, the typical tuition at public HBCUs is lower than the national average, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. But some have struggled to survive with lower endowments and the COVID-19 pandemic, according to news outlets.