The 100 Best Colleges for African-American Students. - book reviews

Black Enterprise, April, 1994 by Frank McCoy

Your 18-year-old has been accepted to several colleges and universities. You're ready to pay the tuition and look forward to a quieter house. But, our near adult is worrying which school is the best for him or her. A good source to turn to for real-world advice is The 100 Best Colleges for African-American Students by Erlene B. Wilson.

Wilson conducted a nationwide survey of top-ranked colleges in 39 states and the District of Columbia. She included private, state and predominantly black institutions. Besides the basics on SAT scores and tuition, she lists prominent black alumni, black Greek organizations, black faculty and black services and programs.

For example, Wilson points out that of the 1,327 students at California's small, academically-rigorous Pomona College, 66 are African-Americans. Between 85% and 90% of the black students graduate. By contrast, of the nearly 30,000 students at the University of Pittsburgh, almost 2,000 are black; only 47% of them graduate. Yet, Pitt has 93 black faculty members, and every African-American course, service or program imaginable, while Pomona's black-oriented activities are still growing.

The forward by Nikki Giovanni, poet and professor of English at Virginia Polytechnic, likens the African-American student's quest for higher education to that of a pioneer. "History may not record your struggles but they will be there, and you, like your ancestors, will have to find a way to overcome."

Finally, Wilson and her student respondents also write candidly: about the black comfort level at the mostly white schools, actual or perceived incidents of racial tension and how students, faculties and administrations handled them. Those stories alone offer a measure of calm and insight for parents and may lend some relief to anxiely-ridden seniors too cool to let anyone know how anxious the really are.