More minority undergraduate students are enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities than ever before, and more of them are choosing minority-serving institutions such as historically Black colleges and universities, Asian-serving institutions and Hispanic-serving institutions.

According to a report released Tuesday by the National Center for Education Statistics, undergraduate enrollment in the United States increased by 39 percent between the years of 1984 and 2004. During that time span, minority enrollment more than doubled, increasing from 1.9 million to 4.7 million.

Conversely, White undergraduate enrollment only grew by 15 percent.

In 2004, minority students constituted nearly one-third of the total undergraduate enrollment. The increase in visibility of minority students on college and university campuses, analysts say, reflects the shift in the general demographics of the U.S. population. In both 1994 and 2004, the proportion of undergraduates who were minority students was comparable to the proportion of the general population who were people of color.

Hispanic undergraduate enrollment had the highest growth, at 237 percent, among racial/ethnic groups, followed by Asian, American Indian, and Black enrollment. Black undergraduates remained the largest single minority group on U.S. college campuses.

“We feel that it’s natural for students to gravitate toward HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions such as Hispanic-serving institutions,” says Jorge Haynes, senior director of external relation for the California State University system, which is home to 12 HSIs. “When you look at a Cal State Los Angeles or Cal State Dominguez Hills, you find faculty that look like you, [college] presidents that look like you and a number of support groups that can be helpful.

“In terms of raw numbers, the numbers look pretty good,” Haynes says. However, he cautions that “if you factor in the population growth, you recognize that these [gains] are only modest increases.”