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Which colleges enroll the most Hispanic students?

Hundreds are now known as Hispanic-serving institutions.

December 18, 2018 at 7:16 a.m. EST
Students near the campus bookstore at University of California at Riverside. (Stuart W. Palley/For The Washington Post)

Related story: Historic Latino student wave reshapes many colleges. But access is uneven.

Hundreds of colleges and universities have capitalized on demographic trends in the new century to establish a burgeoning sector of higher education known as Hispanic-serving institutions.

That’s what the federal government calls schools where at least a quarter of undergraduates are Hispanic. There were 229 of these schools, or HSIs, in 2000, according to the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities. By fall 2016, the total had more than doubled, to 492. It is projected to grow further.

Data from the association show that many Hispanic students gravitate to colleges near home.

Sixty-three of the HSIs are in the predominantly Hispanic commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Of the rest, 211 are public two-year colleges and dozens more are regional public universities in California, Texas and other states with significant Hispanic populations. At California State University at Los Angeles, the Hispanic share of undergraduate enrollment was 64 percent. At the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, it was 91 percent.

Antonio Flores, president and chief executive of the association, said regional colleges are responding to the surge of Hispanic students in elementary and secondary schools. Some universities, he said, have become particularly skilled at partnerships with K-12 school systems and community colleges.

He cited California State University at San Bernardino, which works closely with San Bernardino Valley College. At both schools, the Hispanic share of students exceeds 60 percent. The teamwork, Flores said, “has paid off, big time.”

For the most part, Hispanic enrollment growth has been slower at more competitive and prestigious schools. Several campuses of the University of California are an exception. However, other nationally ranked schools in recent years have become what experts call “emerging HSIs” -- meaning that their Hispanic share is at least 15 percent but less than 25 percent of undergraduate enrollment.

These trends are seen in all parts of the country. “It affects institutions everywhere,” said Deborah A. Santiago, chief executive of the nonprofit advocacy group Excelencia in Education. In the last several years, she said, many schools have embraced what it means to be an HSI or emerging HSI. Now, she said, the challenge is to get more Hispanic students to finish a degree. “If you don’t enroll them, you can’t graduate them,” she said. “But it’s not sufficient to enroll them.”

Below are tables illuminating total undergraduate and Hispanic enrollment at nationally ranked colleges and universities. The enrollment figures show full-time equivalent undergraduates at each school as of fall 2016, and the Hispanic shares. The numbers are from the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities, through its analysis of federal education data. The rankings, noted in parentheses, are from U.S. News & World Report.

National universities (U.S. News rank)
Enrollment 2016
Hispanic %
Princeton University (1)
5,310
10%
Harvard University (2)
8,237
11
Columbia University (3)
7,777
13
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (3)
4,495
15
University of Chicago (3)
5,980
11
Yale University (3)
5,470
12
Stanford University (7)
7,034
16
University of Pennsylvania (8)
10,958
10
Duke University (8)
6,590
8
Johns Hopkins University (10)
5,786
13
Northwestern University (10)
8,492
12
California Institute of Technology (12)
979
12
Dartmouth College (12)
4,286
9
Brown University (14)
6,707
11
Vanderbilt University (14)
6,838
9
Rice University (16)
3,858
14
Cornell University (16)
14,560
12
University of Notre Dame (18)
8,520
11
University of California at Los Angeles (19)
30,557
22
Washington University in St. Louis (19)
7,166
7
Emory University (21)
6,772
9
UC-Berkeley (22)
28,593
14
University of Southern California (22)
18,430
14
Georgetown University (22)
7,212
9
Carnegie Mellon University (25)
6,153
8
University of Virginia (25)
15,821
6
Wake Forest University (27)
4,922
7
Tufts University (27)
5,464
7
University of Michigan (27)
28,378
5
UC-Santa Barbara (30)
21,350
26
New York University (30)
25,378
13
University of North Carolina (30)
18,133
8
UC-Irvine (33)
27,067
26
University of Rochester (33)
6,255
7
University of Florida (35)
32,443
21
Brandeis University (35)
3,598
8
Georgia Institute of Technology (35)
14,491
7
UC-Davis (38)
28,893
20
Boston College (38)
9,735
10
College of William & Mary (38)
6,236
9
UC-San Diego (41)
27,685
17
Boston University (42)
17,145
11
Case Western Reserve University (42)
5,054
6
Northeastern University (44)
13,455
7
Tulane University (44)
7,052
6
Pepperdine University (46)
3,348
14
University of Illinois (46)
33,102
10
University of Georgia (46)
26,983
6
University of Texas (49)
38,418
23
Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (49)
6,253
9
Villanova University (49)
6,690
7
University of Wisconsin (49)
29,538
5
University of Miami (53)
10,411
22
Syracuse University (53)
14,847
10
Lehigh University (53)
5,033
9
Rutgers University (56)
34,887
13
Purdue University (56)
30,034
5
Ohio State University (56)
43,464
4
Southern Methodist University (59)
6,384
11
Worcester Polytechnic Institute (59)
4,337
9
University of Washington (59)
29,410
8
Pennsylvania State University (59)
40,631
6
University of Connecticut (63)
18,925
10
University of Maryland (63)
27,206
10
George Washington University (63)
10,852
9
Texas A&M University (66)
47,369
23
Clark University (66)
2,249
7
Brigham Young University (66)
29,178
6
Clemson University (66)
18,172
3
UC-Santa Cruz (70)
16,692
30
Florida State University (70)
30,755
20
Fordham University (70)
8,957
14
Stevens Institute of Technology (70)
3,111
10
University of Massachusetts (70)
22,232
6
University of Pittsburgh (70)
18,550
3
Virginia Tech (76)
25,446
6
University of Minnesota (76)
31,706
4
Baylor University (78)
14,203
15
American University (78)
7,684
12
Texas Christian University (80)
8,719
12
Stony Brook University (80)
16,329
12
State U. of New York-Binghamton (80)
13,365
11
Colorado School of Mines (80)
4,482
7
North Carolina State University (80)
22,112
5
Yeshiva University (80)
2,662
<1
UC-Riverside (85)
19,647
40
University of San Diego (85)
5,582
19
Michigan State University (85)
36,917
4
Loyola University Chicago (89)
10,663
15
Marquette University (89)
8,078
11
University of Delaware (89)
18,348
8
University of Iowa (89)
22,324
8
University at Buffalo (89)
19,465
7
Indiana University (89)
34,902
5
Howard University (89)
5,702
1
University of San Francisco (96)
6,566
20
Illinois Institute of Technology (96)
2,803
16
University of Colorado (96)
26,649
11
University of Denver (96)
5,594
10
University of Vermont (96)
10,577
4
Miami University of Ohio (96)
16,655
4

Among national liberal arts colleges, those with the highest shares of Hispanic students tend to be in California. They include Pomona, Claremont McKenna, Occidental, Pitzer and Harvey Mudd colleges.

Liberal arts colleges (U.S. News Rank)
Enrollment
Hispanic %
Williams College (1)
2,072
12%
Amherst College (2)
1,849
14
Swarthmore College (3)
1,542
13
Wellesley College (3)
2,400
11
Pomona College (5)
1,559
15
Bowdoin College (5)
1,803
11
Middlebury College (5)
2,513
9
Carleton College (5)
2,094
7
Claremont McKenna College (9)
1,346
14
Davidson College (10)
1,796
7
Grinnell College (11)
1,674
8
Vassar College (11)
2,412
11
Smith College (11)
2,507
10
Haverford College (11)
1,268
8
Washington and Lee University (11)
1,826
4
Colgate University (16)
2,871
9
Hamilton College (16)
1,874
8
Colby College (18)
1,879
7
Harvey Mudd College (18)
834
16
U.S. Military Academy (18)
4,389
12
Wesleyan University (18)
2,939
10
Soka University of America (22)
417
10
Bates College (22)
1,780
9
U.S. Naval Academy (22)
4,528
11
Barnard College (25)
2,480
13
University of Richmond (25)
3,175
8
Bryn Mawr College (27)
1,369
9
Colorado College (27)
2,091
9
Macalester College (27)
2,123
6
Kenyon College (30)
1,696
5
Mount Holyoke College (30)
2,177
8
Scripps College (30)
1,034
11
Oberlin College (30)
2,879
8
U.S. Air Force Academy (30)
4,237
11
College of the Holy Cross (35)
2,701
10
Franklin and Marshall College (36)
2,237
9
Lafayette College (36)
2,523
6
Bucknell University (36)
3,546
6
Occidental College (39)
1,959
15
Union College (39)
2,160
7
Pitzer College (41)
1,042
15
Skidmore College (41)
2,658
9
Thomas Aquinas College (43)
386
16
Denison University (43)
2,266
9
Whitman College (43)
1,469
7
Connecticut College (46)
1,837
9
Trinity College (46)
2,198
7
Centre College (46)
1,429
4
Gettysburg College (49)
2,384
6
Sewanee-University of the South (49)
1,723
6