This is the second half of Black Issues In Higher Education's annual "Top 100" rankings of postsecondary institutions that graduate the most minority students. Part I ranked schools that grant baccalaureate degrees (see July 9, 1998 edition). This edition ranks graduate and professional schools.

For the seventh consecutive year, the publishers of Black Issues have asked me to produce lists of the institutions that confer the largest number of degrees to students of color in the United States. These simple lists are presented with the objective of bringing national attention to those institutions that contribute, in raw numbers, to the educational attainment of members of ethnic and racial minorities.

As the National Center for Education Statistics continues in its effort to provide data in a more timely fashion, this year we faced the mixed blessing of having a more abundant set of data to choose from than in years past. Consistent with last year's rankings, we are releasing numbers from a preliminary file that is in the final stages of completion: data reflecting degree production during the 1995-96 academic year. In addition, we are providing, where available, data from an early release version of degrees conferred for 1996-97.

As in prior years, we restrict this analysis to degrees awarded by accredited colleges and universities in the fifty United States and the District of Columbia. The institutions are ranked according to the total number of degrees awarded to minority students across all disciplines and in specific disciplines. Excluded from this analysis are colleges and universities in Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and Other commonwealths and protectorates, as well as postsecondary institutions within the fifty states and Washington, D.C., that are not accredited at the college level by an agency recognized by the United States Secretary of Education.

Source of Data

The data for this study come from the United States Department of Education. They are collected through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System program completers survey conducted by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement. The survey requests data on the number of degrees and other formal awards conferred in academic, vocational, and continuing professional education programs. Institutions report their data according to the Classification of Instructional Program (CIP) codes developed by me National Center for Educational Statistics. CIP codes provide a common set of categories allowing comparisons across all colleges and universities.