Difference Between Hbcus And Pwis

There comes a time in students’ lives where they have to make one of the biggest decisions of their lives. This may be to follow in the footsteps of some of the greatest African American figures at an HBCU, or to obtain a general education from one of the wide range predominantly white universities. Although attending college is the primary goal for most students, choosing the right institution to attend can be the hardest decision to make. The choice of finding the best university to accommodate their needs is definitely a tough decision. However, by analyzing the polarizing differences in the institutions, students can clearly understand the dissimilarities of attending an HBCU rather than a PWI.
For the last decade, HBCU’s have been stereotypically
For instance, African American students attending PWIs do not receive the same education opportunities as students attending HBCUs. Professor Kevin Cokley, author of “Journal of Black Physiology” emphasizes that “despite enrolling a much larger percentage of African American students, graduates of PWIs account for a disproportionately low percentage of degrees awarded to African American students” (152). Not only do HBCUs offer more degrees, students at HBCUs will also complete more hours and receive more encouragement from their peers and faculty at the institution rather than students attending PWIs. Students attending historically black institutions have more of the support they need in order to achieve and continue to the next level. On the other hand, while HBCUs have more educational background, PWIs or more traditional state schools give students more of the educational resources they need in order to seek the profession of their choice. Even though students attending an HBCU “generally obtain higher levels of college achievement, operationalized as college GPA, PWIs demonstrates higher academic aptitude, self-rated ability, and high school grade point average (HSGPA) for African American students” (Kim and
According to Professor Mikyong Kim “African Americans at PWIs endure a more hostile environment compared to their HBCU counterparts, these students also face a greater number of obstacles with which they must contend in order to succeed” (25). Contrary to the protective environment of black colleges, due to the overpowering majority that whites hold at primarily white institutions, African American students attending PWIs are endlessly antagonized directly with micro insults or indirectly by microinvalidism. These forms of harassment are detrimental to the psyche of black students causing them to feel unwanted and preventing them from growing on a substantial level. The rich history behind black colleges gives colored students a sense of purpose; it propels them to better themselves and achieve greater heights. Robert Palmer and Estelle Young explains that pupils in colored schools display psychosocial acclimatization, cultural acquaintanceship, heightened confidence, and greater scholastic achievements (qtd. in Strayhorn and Terrell 140). On the other hand, white colleges don’t provide the same degree of motivators for those same students. Professor Mikyong Kim also states that “because African Americans at PWIs contend with greater minority-related stress, and because the