Bright green roofs top many of the buildings at Xavier University of Louisiana, marking the rebuilding that’s been going on since Hurricane Katrina swept through New Orleans a decade ago. Founded in 1915 as a high school for Native Americans and African-Americans, XULA is today the country’s only Catholic historically black college, known for its record of producing graduates in the sciences.
The campus is surrounded by the city; popular New Orleans hotspots such as the French Quarter and Frenchman Street are an easy bus or Uber ride away. Even after seeing enrollment drop off after Katrina, Xavier — which now has about 2,250 students — still boasts the country’s highest number of black graduates in both the biological and physical sciences and the highest number who go on to complete medical school.
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One of Xavier’s unique programs allows for students to graduate with a doctorate in pharmacy in six years. Students complete two years of the Pharm.D. program as an undergraduate before transferring to the school’s College of Pharmacy. High school seniors can secure a spot in the program through the contingent admittance program; it’s also possible to apply to the Pharm.D. program during sophomore year of college.
Starting freshman year, the academic advising office makes sure students stay on track for success by laying out milestones for them to hit each year — when to meet with medical school recruiters and study for the MCAT, say, and when to apply to early acceptance programs.
“The pre-med office is so structured and organized,” says David Powell, a 2016 grad in chemistry from Bakersfield, California. He nabbed a spot at the University of Rochester’s medical school during his junior year through XULA’s early assurance program, which allows underclassmen to apply to Rochester without taking the MCAT.
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“You’re going to get in if you do everything that they tell you to do.” Fellow 2016 grad Kandis Carter, who majored in chemistry and is from Gonzales, Louisiana, credits the advising department’s counsel on everything from when to start filling out applications to questions to expect in interviews with helping her get into seven dental schools.
While everyone is required to take six hours of theology, students say the campus is open and accepting to all; only about one-quarter identify as Catholic. African-Americans make up nearly 70 percent of the student body. More than half of students are from Louisiana, primarily the New Orleans area.
Still, students from elsewhere say the school does a good job of making them feel at home. “Being at an HBCU and being around a lot of warm hearts made it easier,” recalls senior political science major Sierra Blanchard-Hodge of her transition to college in the South after arriving from Denver. “It kind of just felt like home,” she says. “It’s easier to make friends and almost family connections down here.”
Xavier’s 70 or so student groups range from the concert choir and the Black Magic Volleyball Team to the poetry and chess clubs. The school also has varsity tennis, basketball and track and field. And the location makes it easy for students to play hard as well as study. From jazz in the streets to Mardi Gras, there are endless ways to sample the food, art, culture and history that make New Orleans so hypnotizing.
And some students seize the opportunity “to make something that’s not there,” says Chandler Schexnayder, a fourth-year student in the pharmacy program from Patterson, Louisiana. He helped to create Project E.A.T. — for Evaluate, Attack and Triumph — whose mission is to increase the retention of black male students and mentor them to succeed academically, socially and financially.
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This story is excerpted from the U.S. News “Best Colleges 2017” guidebook, which features in-depth articles, rankings and data.
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Deep South College Road Trip: Xavier University of Louisiana originally appeared on usnews.com
