U.S. News & World Report has launched a new ranking series, “America’s Best Black Colleges,” which ranks historically Black colleges and universities separately but by using the same methodology as its annual “America’s Best Colleges” rankings.
The inspiration behind the new series, Kenneth Terrell, assistant managing editor for education at U.S. News, says came from readers and an effort to show the relevancy of Black institutions, which don’t normally do well in the annual rankings when compared to the more than 4,000 other colleges and universities.
“We think that it’s very important to show that Black colleges are rewarding institutions, and we want them to be more visible, and for our readers to see the tremendous experience they have to offer to not only Black students but first-generation college students, other students of color and ones that come from low-income and disadvantage communities,” Terrell says.
Only four-year institutions that are recognized by the U.S. Department of Education as HBCUs and had appeared in the U.S. News’ annual “America’s Best Colleges” rankings were eligible to participate in the new ranking series, Terrell says.
The methodology used in the new HBCU rankings were the standard categories the magazine uses for its annual ranking: peer assessment, graduation and retention rates, faculty resources, student selectivity, financial resources and alumni giving rates.
The only difference is that HBCUs were ranked by their counterparts, not their peers from mainstream institutions.
At the top of the list of America’s best Black colleges is Spelman College in Atlanta; Howard University in Washington, D.C.; Hampton University in Virginia; and Morehouse College in Atlanta.
