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Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU):

For the past 150 years, historically black colleges and universities have prepared African Americans for the economic, social, and political challenges of America. The majority of African Americans who hold Ph.D. degrees, medical degrees, law degrees, federal judgeships, and officer ranks in the U.S. military did their undergraduate work at these institutions. Every year about one-third of all African Americans who get a college degree graduate from these colleges, even though they enroll only 16 percent of all African-American college students.

Graduates of these colleges and universities are among the most distinguished Americans and include such familiar names as the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, former Virginia governor Douglas Wilder, opera diva Leontyne Price, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young, filmmaker Spike Lee, actor Samuel L. Jackson, former Secretary of Health and Human Services Louis Sullivan, Director of the Centers for Disease Control David Satcher, U.S. Air Force General Chappie James, and astronaut Ronald McNair. But these graduates are not only the famous: they are business leaders, college teachers, doctors, lawyers, civil servants, elected officials, poets, and artists who enrich the lives of America's cities and towns by their contributions to all our prosperity and well-being.

Throughout their history, HBCUs have prepared leaders for America through a quality education at an affordable cost in a nurturing environment. The 103 HBCUs vary in geography, type, size and curricula. There are 53 private and 50 public HBCUs, 14 2-year colleges, and 3 professional colleges. Included in this array of institutions are single-sex, coeducational, church-related, research, liberal arts, small, large, undergraduate only, etc.

HBCUs are centers of excellence with unique capabilities to address African-American needs. Of the 20 colleges that graduate the most African-American students who go on to earn Ph.D.s, 9 of the top 10 are HBCUs. While only 16 percent of African Americans attend HBCUs, 45 percent of recent African-American Ph.D.s received their undergraduate degrees at HBCUs. The leading four colleges in America placing African Americans into medical colleges are HBCUs Xavier, Howard, Spelman, and Morehouse. When this is combined with the fact that over one-half of all African-American professionals are graduates of HBCUs, then, increasingly, young African Americans will be drawn to these centers of affordable higher educational excellence where they can find role models, a nonhostile and nurturing environment, professors who expect them to succeed and achieve academic excellence, and where the president and professors know them by name and sometimes have even memorized their parents' telephone numbers.

Indeed, it is in such environments that HBCUs do their transformational work. These institutions have proved themselves capable of taking students who have received modest or inadequate secondary education or those whose aptitude was not discovered using traditional assessment methods like the SAT or ACT tests and producing talented, contributing citizens. They know how to take diamonds in the rough and make them more brilliant, as Harvard and Stanford do. But they also know how to do something other colleges cannot do. They know how to take a lump of coal and turn it into a diamond by mentoring, expecting excellence, and hands-on teaching by faculty who have been there and care. (The Case for All Black Colleges by William H Gray)

Liberal Arts Colleges:

Focus on the education of undergraduate students. Classes are generally taught by professors who see teaching as their primary responsibility. Because most liberal arts colleges are smaller than universities, their classes tend to be smaller and more personal attention is available. Students who attend liberal arts colleges are exposed to a broad base of courses in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. In addition, they choose at least one area of in-depth study that is their college major. Many employers look for graduates of liberal arts programs due to their well-rounded preparation.

Vocational/Technical Colleges:

Technical institutes and professional colleges emphasize preparation for specific careers, and enroll students who have made clear decisions about what they want to study.

Women's Colleges:

Attending a women's college increases the likelihood that women will major in traditionally male-dominated careers such as engineering, politics, or the sciences. Furthermore, coeducational institutions are believed to reinforce notions that academic success is unattractive (Riordan, 1994).

The United States is home to 82 women's colleges today, located in 25 states and concentrated heavily in Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Georgia. These diverse colleges share a single overarching mission: they exist to promote the educational achievement of women.

Tribal Colleges:

The tribal college movement began more than 25 years ago due to the near complete failure of higher education to meet the needs of, or even include, Native Americans. The nation's first tribal college was formed in 1969, and by 1972, six tribal colleges had been established on Native American lands, and together they formed the American Indian Higher Education Consortium (AIHEC). Today, AIHEC is home to 31 member institutions in the United States and Canada, and enrolls more than 25,000 students from 250 federally recognized tribes.

Together the tribal colleges represent the most significant and successful development in Native American educational history. Tribal colleges provide academic, vocational, and technical programs similar to those at mainstream institutions (Monette,1999).

HBCUs, tribal colleges, and women's colleges tend to offer more mentors and role models for students than traditional institutions. These types of interactions tend to increase the likelihood that students will complete their undergraduate degrees, pursue graduate and professional training, and meet with occupational success.

Community Colleges:

Students who spend their first two years at community colleges, then go on to graduate from four-year colleges, are as well prepared academically as those who go directly to four-year colleges.

Today, community colleges offer preparation for most of the top 10 "hot jobs" identified by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and they do so at an average cost thousands of dollars below that of 4-year colleges and universities.

Community colleges are a uniquely American invention, and they are known for a flexible but no-nonsense approach to higher education. They now enroll almost one-half of all undergraduates who attend college in this country. Their ability to adjust to new technologies and the changing demands of the workplace has made them the first choice both for many young students and for an increasing number of older students who return to college to update skills or to pursue entirely new careers.

Primary missions of the Community Colleges are to offer academic and vocational education at the lower division level for both younger and older students, including those persons returning to college. Another primary mission is to advance California's economic growth and global competitiveness through education, training, and services that contribute to continuous work force improvement. Essential and important functions of the Colleges include: remedial instruction for those in need of it and in conjunction with the college districts, instruction in English as a second language, adult noncredit instruction, and support services which help students succeed at the postsecondary level.

By law, the California Community Colleges shall admit any California resident and may admit anyone who is over 18 years of age and who is capable of profiting from the instruction offered. The Colleges may also admit any non-resident, possessing a high school diploma or the equivalent thereof.

Advantages to a community college:

Test your interests without racking up big bills
Build remedial skills, before taking the plunge at a university
Take job training course that lead to a career in two years
Solid cost savings: the tuition at a community college is about half that of a public four-year college
Financial aid availability: the federal government's Hope Tax Credit and the Lifetime Learning Credit bills pay up to 75% of college tuition for the first two years of college, up to $1500 and $1000 respectively