<p>^Excellent choices!</p>
<p>Previously, I was not in favor of HBCU’s, but as a student at a PWI, I have come to appreciate their value. I do not think I would have been forced to think seriously about the importance of a black community in the formation of my college experience, but since there are far fewer individuals of color at my school, to say nothing of people from backgrounds similar to mine, I have experienced a degree of cultural and social isolation that has been attenuated only through the friendships I have been able to form with people from a variety of different groups, particularly in the vibrant and diverse black community here.</p>
<p>I went to a high school where everyone was a minority - numerically, there were no majorities, and a variety of cultures were represented with clear links to the mother countries - there were no WASPS (they were too rich for our neighborhood!) but we did have Italians and Irish students, Jamaicans and Bajans, El Salvadoreans and Guatemalans, and a very strong Polish contingent - and they all spoke their original languages. Now I’m discovering what it is truly like to be minority in a bastion of white privilege, and it’s nice to have people to talk to who understand my confusion. When choosing your college, I would urge you to all seriously consider HBCUs - if you intend to do a professional degree, your undergraduate school will not matter as much anyway, and it is a wonderful experience to be surrounded by people with similar cultural reference to you.</p>