The 10 Most Diverse Colleges

Which American campuses are the most ethnically diverse? In order to find out, U.S. News and World Report looked at enrollment data from schools -- divided by region and type -- and found the overall percentage of minority students as well as how many ethnic groups were represented on each campus. The schools that scored closer to one on the index are those "where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different from their own."

Racial categories include Hispanics, non-Hispanic African-Americans, non-Hispanic Whites, American Indians and Native Alaskans, and Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Below, check out the ten most diverse national universities and liberal arts colleges, and click here to view the full list.

Is your school diverse? What does your campus do to encourage multiculturalism? Let us know in the comments section.

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Rutgers, The State University Of New Jersey -- Newark

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Comments

[Shannon Heath]

03:59 PM on 11/18/2010

How about the University of Illinois at Chicago... We have no racial majority!

[Geoprof]

09:44 PM on 11/16/2010

Ethnic demographics of California State University, Long Beach. This is typical for many CSU campuses.

African American 5.7%
Asian American 23.4%
White American 31.0%
Hispanic American 26.6%
Native American 0.6%
International 4.7%
Ethnicity unreported/unknown 8.1%

[sofiapwns]

08:55 PM on 11/11/2010

Where's Florida International University?

[veritas88]

02:16 PM on 11/10/2010

Suny Old Westbury needs to work on maintenance and upkeep if that's what the whole campus looks like. Sheesh.

[lelabet]

12:09 PM on 11/10/2010

I have to question the editor's choice of colleges photos for this slide show. The worst - Old Westbury. Wow, showing me a photo of an old decrepit building really screams diversity. You couldn't come up with something better? An Google search for Old Westbury came up with some nice ones. Also, diversity means more than just ethnicity or race. Don't even get me started on Wellesley OR the picture that is posted!

[AbeMartin]

08:21 AM on 11/10/2010

This is a surprisingly short list.  Within the City University of New York system, you have extraordinarily diverse student body that closely reflects the amazing diversity of the five boroughs.  If you want to see a smaller unit, which certainly would qualify if any measure of objectivity or empirical analysis was employed, visit Queens College on Kissena Blvd. in Queens.  Queens as the most ethnically and linguistically diverse borough has contributed enormously to the campus, which, ranked as one of the great bargains in public education by the U.S. News and World Report, has a student body comes from homes in which over 65 different languages are the "first language."

It should also be noted, that aside from producing some of the pre-eminent scientists, business leaders and men and women of letters, that the College has been remarkably free of the racial animus that characterizes some of the institutions naively presented.  The College should stand as a hallmark that diversity, supposedly diametrically opposed racial, ethnic and religious groups can work and live in close harmony.

[Linda McIntyre]

06:04 PM on 11/09/2010

How about University of California, Santa Cruz.

[DanSc]

02:38 AM on 11/10/2010

The UC system is mostly just Whites and Asians. The Cal State schools are much more diverse.

[suec03]

07:08 AM on 11/10/2010

UC Riverside and UC Merced would be the exceptions to that "rule."

[3xAmazing]

06:36 PM on 11/22/2010

As a POC, banana slug alum all I can say is: "You're kidding, right?"

[chairman1969]

04:10 PM on 11/09/2010

what the h3ll? most of these libraries all look the same...

[suec03]

07:09 AM on 11/10/2010

Posted to wrong thread.

[Got Attitude]

03:58 PM on 11/09/2010

The pictures accompanying this slideshow are completely random and show neither a landmark defining the college named nor even a diverse student body. The editor who approved this needs to rethink his/her editorial ability.

[DrSnuggles]

10:49 AM on 11/09/2010

Ahhh meaningless statistics; if you look at the method - you could easily become the most diverse campus byt having one (1) of each minority subgroup and then having a large population of one of those subgroups. In other words, a campus that is ~50% white ~50% black and has a two dozen tokens would be considered the most diverse by this method; even though it really one has two groups on its campus.

However, if they were to reverse the slideshow (LEAST diverse campuses) the results become much more significant.

[pickle541]

09:15 AM on 11/09/2010

Pine Manor was a surprise!

[pickle541]

09:14 AM on 11/09/2010

The swimmers in the Wellesley photo are actually from Babson, another college in Wellesley, MA. You can read it on their jackets.

Also, is it me or was that SUNY photo the bleakest looking campus, ever?

[dwill123]

09:06 AM on 11/09/2010

Temple University in Philadelphia, MUST be included on this list.

[h23154]

08:22 AM on 11/09/2010

Is any troubled that they track this and keep stats?

[JohnCK]

07:37 AM on 11/09/2010

nobody cares about skin color

only liberals use it

[suec03]

08:31 AM on 11/09/2010

How ignorant!  Differences in life experiences between white students, Hispanic students, Asian students, African-American students and Native American Students are not about the darkness or lightness of one's skin.  A lighter-skinned African-American student may bring different life experiences than a white roommate.  I attended UC Riverside from 1979-1981 and sought out a place on the Spanish language dorm hall.  Most of the students there were Mexican-American and other Latin American, but there were also white and Black students on the hall.  We had a separate dining area where we could watch Latin American films at dinner, and went on field trips together, as well as hanging out together in the lounge.  We even visited a couple of family celebrations.  I grew up in a Southern California neighborhood that was almost exclusively white, with just a few Hispanic families, a couple Asian families and ONE African-American family. At UCR I had one Latina roommate from Montebello, and two African-American roommates, one from the high desert and one from rural Imperial County. I benefitted from getting to know those individuals, how they grew up, and their different individual personalities. It wasn't just about the differences in the colors of our skins.

[MajorKong]

01:50 AM on 11/10/2010

Haven't spent much time in Mississippi have you?