by Nick Selbe, SmartClass.com
There’s a growing trend among high schools across the country that is clearly an encouraging sign — the national graduation rate is on the rise. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, over 81 percent of high school students graduated in 2013, up from 75 percent in 2008. Nearly each racial and ethnic demographic has seen a steady rise in graduation rates during that time.
Despite seeing a relative decrease during this timeframe, Asian and Pacific Islander students still have the highest graduation of any other demographic. The three demographics with the highest increase in graduation rates since 2008 are Hispanics, African-Americans and Native Americans/Alaskans. With this progressively varied pool of potential college students, StartClass set out to find which universities have the most diverse student bodies.
Using data from the NCES from the 2013-2014 school year (the most recent available), we identified the 25 colleges with at least 20,000 students that had the highest percentage of minority students. Ethnicity data is collected by each school via self-reporting from students. Each university’s minority percentage includes students who are African-American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian/Alaskan or Hawaiian/Pacific Islander.
Students who do not report their ethnicity are categorized as “Unknown” and are also not included in the overall minority percentage. International students, regardless of ethnicity, are also not included in a school’s minority percentage.
#25. CUNY Hunter
Location: New York, NY
Total students: 23,019
#24. Valencia College
Location: Orlando, FL
Total students: 42,180
#23. UC San Diego
Location: La Jolla, CA
Total students: 29,517
#22. Everest University-South Orlando
Location: Orlando, FL
Total students: 29,693
#21. Georgia State University
Location: Atlanta, GA
Total students: 32,165
#20. California State University-Sacramento
Location: Sacramento, CA
Total students: 28,811
#19. California State University-Northridge
Location: Northridge, CA
Total students: 38,310
#18. University of Houston
Location: Houston, TX
Total students: 39,540
#17. San Francisco State University
Location: San Francisco, CA
Total students: 29,905
#16. California State University-Fullerton
Location: Fullerton, CA
Total students: 38,325
#15. San Jose State University
Location: San Jose, CA
Total students: 31,278
#14. California State University-Fresno
Location: Fresno, CA
Total students: 23,060
#13. University of Texas at San Antonio
Location: San Antonio, TX
Total students: 28,623
#12. UC Irvine
Location: Irvine, CA
Total students: 28,895
#11. California State University-Long Beach
Location: Long Beach, CA
Total students: 35,586
#10. California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Location: Pomona, CA
Total students: 22,501
#9. Broward College
Location: Fort Lauderdale, FL
Total students: 43,883
#8. University of Hawaii at Manoa
Location: Honolulu, HI
Total students: 20,006
#7. UC Riverside
Location: Riverside, CA
Total students: 21,207
#6. California State University-Los Angeles
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Total students: 23,258
#5. Florida International University
Location: Miami, FL
Total students: 47,663
#4. University of Texas at El Paso
Location: El Paso, TX
Total students: 23,003
#3. Miami Dade College
Location: Miami, FL
Total students: 66,298
#2. University of Texas-Pan American
Location: Edinburg, TX
Total students: 20,053
#1. South Texas College
Location: McAllen, TX
Total students: 31,232
Learn More About Colleges at StartClass
