Battling for the Best
Black schools experience a renaissance in  recruiting high-achieving students

By Ronald Roach

WASHINGTON
When Leslie Broadway was applying to colleges, he had enough confidence in his academic record and athletic accomplishments that he concentrated all his energies on securing an appointment to the U.S. Air Force Academy. But when a knee injury in January of his senior year forced Broadway to consider applying to other institutions, the burly high school wrestling star didn't worry too much about having missed application deadlines at other competitive institutions.
Admissions officials at both Howard and Florida A&M universities had kept in touch with Broadway via letters and phone calls, promising him academic scholarships and other support if he applied to the well-known historically Black schools.
Broadway first attracted the attention of Howard and FAMU officials during the fall of 1999, when he was named one of 1,500 National Achievement semifinalists. The National Achievement program is a scholarship program that identifies high-performing African American students.
In winter 2000, Broadway remained a viable admission candidate even though he had yet to apply to either school.
"I felt I was okay because I was interested in getting a Black college experience and both institutions were interested in me," Broadway says.
By later qualifying as a National Achievement finalist and scholar, Broadway became eligible for scholarship programs at both schools that guaranteed full tuition, room, board and a book stipend for four years.
For Broadway, an all-expenses-paid weekend visit to the Howard University campus in Washington, D.C., and a full-ride scholarship offer sealed the deal. He says the Howard trip made him feel at home and comfortable at the 11,000-student private university. As one of six Black students in a senior class of 607, Broadway thought Howard would provide support and nurturing that had not been available at his suburban Atlanta high school in Gwinnett County.
"I believe there's a diversity within the Black community that I'll experience here at Howard," Broadway says.
For historically Black institutions, highly qualified, academically gifted students like Broadway represent a critical factor in the HBCU resurgence over the last 15 years. Schools such as Howard, Hampton University, Morehouse College, Spelman College, Florida A&M University and Xavier University of Louisiana have attained national recognition for their competitiveness in recruiting high-achieving Black students. 
"It's an important statement to make that HBCUs can attract and educate the best and the brightest of our own. I think it's important for Black colleges to compete for the best and brightest students," says Dr. Frederick Humphries, president of FAMU. "It raises the level of the educational process. It makes us all get better."
But at a time when high-achieving Black students can basically write their own tickets to colleges and universities across the country, attracting those top-notch students has proven to be a formidable task for many historically Black schools.
The battle for these students is often one where the best financially endowed come out on top. Most HBCU officials say that when it comes to recruiting accomplished Black students, they are willing to — and indeed must — pull out all the stops.