^^^ That (#88 and 89). Right on point.
And from a different perspective, my child goes to a private school that is fairly diverse, both racially (21% students of color) and economically (23% of kids on financial aid, averaging 70% of tuition – I’d guess 10-15% of the class is full ride, down to their laptops). We have amazing college counseling and we celebrate the kids who get into Morehouse, Spelman, and Howard as much as we celebrate the ones going to Princeton, Stanford, and Duke. It would never occur to anyone that a kid with his credentials was selling himself short by going to any of those schools. Trust me, Morehouse would be a tremendous opportunity for the young man, as would many of the other schools. You can’t judge HBCU’s solely on graduation rates; it’s often a money issue that does not reflect the quality of instruction or the student body.
I understand why this might be hard for you @SeniorStruggling. There’s no reason why the average high school student who is not African American would know much about HBCUs. I only do because of years in higher education, including some years teaching courses at a state flagship law school that was delighted to recruit from HBCUs. None of those students or my current colleagues who went to HBCUs would do it any differently.