Bowie or Brown

Bowie or Brown?: The Pros and Cons of HBCUs

As a student at a historically black university, I have a firsthand experience with HBCUs. I’ve been a scholar all of my life, receiving exceptional grades throughout the grades K-12. Because of these achievements, Bowie State University awarded me a full ride scholarship to their school. The school that I wanted to attend the most, University of Maryland College Park did not give me any money and did not award me for any of the things that I did in high school. In my opinion, to them, there were too many people with statistics just like me so I didn’t stand out. In contrast, my academic accomplishments must have looked great to Bowie State. This was one of the major factors that influenced my decision to attend an HBCU. One of the main things that I didn’t want to happen though was for me to feel like I was at my high school once again. I didn’t want to deal with a lot of ignorant, immature individuals like I did in ninth through twelfth grade.

The first historically black university, Cheyney University, founded about two centuries ago. Throughout the years, 104 more colleges and universities followed suit and provided opportunities for African Americans that predominantly white institutions would not. These colleges were all founded during a period of time when African Americans were not treated as equal races to whites. At this point, people benefited heavily from HBCUs. Now, in 2013, there are conflicting opinions on HBCUs. The academic, social, and cultural aspects to HBCUs have their positives and negatives. However, after examining the pros and cons of HBCUs, I found that as a first generation college student, these schools were effective institutions for higher learning.

Without a doubt, academics are one of the most important parts of a students’ college experience. They obviously need a positive place to learn in so that they can get good grades and graduate with a diploma that they’re proud of. In order...