Vol. 24., No. 11	December 23, 1998

Columbia Is Best in Ivy League for African Americans

Columbia University is the best Ivy League school and among the best overall for African-American students, according to a new survey and ranking to be published in the January issue of Black Enterprise magazine. Columbia is 15th in the magazine's survey, "Top 50 Colleges for African Americans," which took into account each school's social environment and graduation rate for black students, as well as its academic strengths. Among Ivy League schools, Columbia stands out, trailed by Harvard in 28th position. Rankings one through nine are filled by historically black colleges and universities. Spelman and Morehouse in Atlanta placed first and second respectively. The magazine's 10-page report on the survey also breaks down the ranking into four sub-categories that separate colleges from universities, and schools that draw students regionally from those that attract them nationally. In the sub-category of national universities, Columbia ranks third, behind Stanford and Georgetown and ahead of Emory and the University of North Carolina. The reason for the survey was "African American students were not doing well at some colleges, because they had not made the right choice. They solely looked at the academic programs without considering the social environment," said Thomas LaVeist, associate professor of health and public policy at Johns Hopkins and CEO of DayStar, the company that conducted the survey and created the ranking. LaVeist queried 1,077 African-American professionals at 987 U.S. colleges and universities. The criteria he used for including a school in his research was: it had to be an accredited, four-year institution and had to have an African-American enrollment of at least 1.5 percent of the student body. Black Enterprise magazine, founded in 1970, is a monthly publication for and about the African-American business world that now has a readership of 3.1 million.