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[stringyone]

After reading the latest "ethnic identification" thread, I thought about of friend of mine.  Now she is a black student that a top ranked public school. 

She had once been given the advice to specify her campus when she introduces herself because people will otherwise assume that she was a student at one of the smaller campuses that has a large black student population.

So what if she were from the smaller campus?

And then I wondered:  Are students from HBCUs automatically at a disadvantage?   

[tenured_feminist]

Depends on field and specialization. Some HBCUs have strong reputations in some fields and I'd think that coming from one of those institutions/fields would grant the applicant an automatic second look.

[locutus]

Maryland?

It's difficult to say. I guess it could be an issue, but I wouldn't assume it to be.

[stringyone]

It's difficult to say. I guess it could be an issue, but I wouldn't assume it to be.

Perhaps I'm naive, but I don't understand why it could be an issue.


I wasn't with my friend when the advice was given, but it seemed as though people would have been less inclined to accept her work if she were a student at the smaller school. 

At a large conference recently attended, I recall instances where it seemed that people responded more favorably to presenters from "Unknown" nonHBCU than they did to presenters from Well Known HBCU.

I would think that a person's reason for choosing an HBCU is more personal than professional.  To me, good work is good work.  So I can't  understand why anyone other academics woud think otherwise.

Depends on field and specialization. Some HBCUs have strong reputations in some fields and I'd think that coming from one of those institutions/fields would grant the applicant an automatic second look.

My apologies.  I was looking at this from a STEM perspective.   

I do apologize for the poorly written original post.  I was trying to consolidate the post and aparently failed.

[zowie]

And then I wondered:  Are students from HBCUs automatically at a disadvantage?   

I almost have this conversation about the use or non use of a doctorate from an HBCU. Check out the thread "The Problem with HBCUs" where some of these concerns are addressed.  HBCUs are so unknown to the larger academic arena that their degrees don't measure up with those of known Predominantely White Institutions.

I say don't waste your time getting a Ph.D. from an HBCU.

[zowie]

After reading the latest "ethnic identification" thread, I thought about of friend of mine.  Now she is a black student that a top ranked public school. 

She had once been given the advice to specify her campus when she introduces herself because people will otherwise assume that she was a student at one of the smaller campuses that has a large black student population.

So what if she were from the smaller campus?

And then I wondered:  Are students from HBCUs automatically at a disadvantage?   

[eddean]

No students are not at a disadvantage unless that campus has a bad academic rep. In otherwords, HBCUs are like PWIs. Some are good and some are not.

[sciencephd]

 I was looking at this from a STEM perspective.   

I'm not aware of a HBCU graduate program with a "top tier" reputation in the sciences.

[laurel_knx]

I don't think the original advice has to do with HBCUs being less respected, but rather people's expectations. For example, her advisers want her to be seen as a student from a top program at "Fake State Springfield", but maybe people often just say they go to "Fake State". If "Fake State Otherville" is 90% black, then if this person said "Fake State" listeners might assume "Fake State Otherville" not "Fake State Springfield". This has to do with people making sense of an ambiguous statement ("which campus?") on the basis of available data (whether it's inappropriate is another matter).

If FSS has a top-tier Basket Engineering program and FSO does not, I would definitely want to specify that I went to FS-Springfield so people don't use probability-based guesses about my campus. Not because FSO is mostly black, but because it is not a good Basket Engineering program. Totally different issues.

[frogfactory]

I'm not aware of a HBCU graduate program with a "top tier" reputation in the sciences.

Out of interest, how is Howard University rated for graduate science programs?  It seems to have done pretty well lately in terms of bringing in money, but I can't find any indication of how it's seen by the wider community in this specific area.

[mended_drum]

I agree that a degree from the center campus of a state university system, provided it has the strongest reputation in the field, would impress scs far more than a degree from a branch campus--whatever its ethnic make-up--unless that branch campus also has a top reputation in the field (or at least an "up-and-coming" reputation).  However, concealing, even by omission, the fact the someone's degree is not from the primary campus is dangerously likely to backfire.

[sciencephd]

I'm not aware of a HBCU graduate program with a "top tier" reputation in the sciences.

Out of interest, how is Howard University rated for graduate science programs?  It seems to have done pretty well lately in terms of bringing in money, but I can't find any indication of how it's seen by the wider community in this specific area.

Start with the US News rankings of grad schools.

[frogfactory]

Thanks, I saw the overall rankings (where it's ranked 'top tier' at ~100), but didn't find the grad school rankings when I looked earlier (perhaps because it's not in them).   I ask because it's the only HBCU I know of, and I was pretty sure I'd heard of it before moving to the States.  That might have been Howard Payne I was thinking of, though.

I take it this is the US equivalent of the THES rankings in the UK.

[sciencephd]

Thanks, I saw the overall rankings (where it's ranked 'top tier' at ~100), but didn't find the grad school rankings when I looked earlier (perhaps because it's not in them).   I ask because it's the only HBCU I know of, and I was pretty sure I'd heard of it before moving to the States.  That might have been Howard Payne I was thinking of, though.

I take it this is the US equivalent of the THES rankings in the UK.

US News rankings are just a starting point.

[stapler]

When trying to get a feel for the productivity of a given department or university in my STEM field, I sometimes turn to the various tools related to ISI's "Web of Science".  Some of these tools allow one to rank schools globally on the basis of absolute + relative numbers of publications in ISI-ranked journals.  A very imperfect means of ranking a school (mere bean counting doesn't take into account factors such as publication significance), but it can still be an illuminating piece of the puzzle.