Dartmouth earned the 47th spot on Black Enterprise magazine's Top 50 Colleges for African Americans report this year for the first time since the list debuted in 1999. Florida A&M University secured first place, while four other historically black colleges and universities helped round out the top ten. Dartmouth and Brown University's addition to the list marked the first time all eight members of the Ivy League were represented in the list.
"Each list is a snapshot in time. Dartmouth has benefited from having an opportunity to be considered," Alfred Edmonds Jr., editor-in-chief of Black Enterprise, said.
Edmonds said that the list was developed as a tool to help readers during the college search.
A committee of 500 black academic professionals reviewed over 1,400 colleges that met the selection criteria of being an accredited four-year educational institution with a black student enrollment of at least three percent.
Edmonds said that academic professionals were chosen instead of students to rank schools because most students are only familiar with a few schools.
Black student graduation rate, social and academic environment, percentage of black undergraduate students, total black enrollment and rankings on the 2004 list were the six variables that determined a school's placement on the list. Black student graduation rate was weighted heaviest, followed by the social and environment scores.
While these changes may have aided Dartmouth's emergence onto the list, the selection method used still favors larger institutions, according to Andrew Wadium, media relations manager of Black Enterprise.
Mattie Stevens, Dartmouth's interim black student adviser, said that the College has one of the highest graduation rates for black students because its admitted students are self-selected high achievers.
"The students that come to Dartmouth are not admitted just because they are black. [Dartmouth admissions officers] only admit students that they know will come to the college and succeed," Stevens said. "If you didn't have the skills to make it, you would have never have been admitted."
Stevens said that the quality of a black student's experience at Dartmouth varies depending on the individual, as students come to college with their own preconceived notions. She admitted, however, that the academic and social community were strong factors that affected a student's time at Dartmouth.
According to Stevens, whether or not the community is receptive to the idea of diversity and whether or not the community views its admission of black students solely as the product of affirmative action also affect the experience black students have at their colleges.
Dartmouth also suffered in the ratings due to lower social and academic environment scores. Yet, some point out that students' own attitudes affect their interpretation of the Dartmouth social scene.
"It depends on how open the student is to trying new things. Coming to a school like Dartmouth you can't really be closed-minded, you have to open yourself to trying new things," Rictrell Pirtle '07 said.
Casey Frost '09 agreed that students should not let racial criteria become a major issue in picking a college.
"You can't let that affect the decision you make when going to college," Frost said. "[Because] after college when you try to become a member of society, if you categorize yourself as black this and black that, a lot of doors will be closed to you."
