BLACK ENTERPRISE Announces the Top 50 Colleges for African Americans:

NEW YORK, Aug. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- BLACK ENTERPRISE (BE) today announced its 2006 list of the Top 50 Colleges for African Americans. Of the 10 highest-ranking schools for 2006, five are historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs); five are located in the South; and eight are private institutions.

Attaining the No. 1 rank is Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, FL. Founded on October 3, 1887, as the State Normal College for Colored Students, the venerable HBCU offers 62 bachelor's degrees in 103 majors/tracks and provides 36 master's degrees in 56 majors/tracks. Florida A&M previously achieved the No. 6 rank in 2004. "FAMU's reputation for educational excellence continues to thrive," said Interim President Castell Vaughn Bryant. "We provide our students with well-rounded experiences and equip them with the skills they need to be successful and productive citizens. The impact of our students' success penetrates into an improved quality of life for the communities they go on to serve."

Closely following Florida A&M is No. 2 ranked Howard University in Washington, DC, which ranked No. 4. in 2004. Rounding out the top 10 are: No. 3, North Carolina A&T State University, Greensboro, NC; No. 4, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA; No. 5, Spelman College, Atlanta, GA; No. 6, Hampton University, Hampton, VA.; No. 7, Stanford University, Stanford, CA; No. 8, Columbia University, New York, NY; No. 9, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA; and No. 10, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.

To develop the 2006 list, BE surveyed more than 500 African American higher education professionals including presidents, chancellors, and directors of student affairs for their assessments of the social and academic environments for African American students at the nation's colleges and universities. The list was derived using the following variables: black student graduation rate; average survey score for the school's academic environment; average survey score for the school's social environment; total black undergraduate enrollment; black undergraduate students as a percentage of total undergraduates (credit for this variable was capped at 50% for HBCUs); and ranking on the 2004 BE Top Colleges list. The results were then narrowed to the published Top 50.

The variable given the heaviest weighting was black graduation rates, followed by the average academic and social environment scores. Due to added emphasis on these factors and other adjustments to the survey process itself, 17 schools that made this year's list didn't appear in 2004, including Mills College and Northwestern University. Morehouse, which had been the top school on the last two listings, slipped 44 spots, from No. 1 to No. 45, primarily because its graduation rate fell from 56% to 49% over the past two years. Several of the newcomers, such as Dickinson and Babson colleges, have graduation rates of 90% or higher, so schools with rates below 50% were pushed further down or off the list completely. However, larger HBCUs like Florida A&M did well, even though they had graduation rates of less than 50%, because they benefited from having higher black enrollment numbers.

TOP 50 BLACK COLLEGES

1 Morehouse College, Atlanta, Ga.
2 Hampton University, Hampton, Va.
3 Spelman College, Atlanta, Ga.
4 Howard University, Washington, D.C.
5 Xavier University, New Orleans, La.
6 Florida A&M University, Tallahassee, Fla.
7 Stanford University, Palo Alto, Calif.
8 Columbia University, New York, N.Y.
9 Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.
10 Clark Atlanta University, Atlanta, Ga.
11 Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.
12 Duke University, Durham, N.C.
13 Berea College, Berea, Ky.
14 Williams College, Williamstown, Mass.
15 University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.
16 Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio
17 Emory University, Atlanta, Ga.
18 Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn.
19 North Carolina A&T Univ., Greensboro, N.C.
20 University of Maryland, College Park, Md.
21 Tuskegee University, Tuskegee, Ala.
22 Fisk University, Nashville, Tenn.
23 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa.
24 George Washington University, Washington, D.C.
25 Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y.
26 Wellesley College, Wellesley, Mass.
27 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.
28 Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, Calif.
29 Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, Mass.
30 Amherst College, Amherst, Mass.
31 Wake Forest University, Winston-Salem, N.C.
32 New York University, New York, N.Y.
33 Swarthmore College, Swarthmore, Pa.
34 Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.
35 Morgan State University, Baltimore, Md.
36 Johnson C. Smith University, Charlotte, N.C.
37 Southern University and A&M College, Baton Rouge, La.
38 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md.
39 Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
40 Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
41 Temple University, Philadelphia, Pa.
42 Brown University, Providence, R.I.
43 Dillard University, New Orleans, La.
44 Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tenn.
45 Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio
46 Florida International University, Miami, Fla.
47 California State University, Los Angeles, Calif.
48 Bethune-Cookman College, Daytona Beach, Fla.
49 Mass. Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass.
50 Univ. of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, Calif.