Official HBCU thread vol.Bring on the arguements

[devanisgee]

I was thinking of applying to one, but a degree from MOST HCBU's is nothing more than a joke nowadays.

+ being around a bunch of bammas in a homogeneous society is a no-no

 

[hovkid350]

Originally Posted by Devanisgee

I was thinking of applying to one, but a degree from MOST HCBU's is nothing more than a joke nowadays.

+ being around a bunch of bammas in a homogeneous society is a no-no

exactly

@PEOPLE actually thinking most HCBU's are good. and yes to houseman diligencedoes test gpa. so you're telling me howard students are just as diligent as harvard students?

you're a clown dude, and so are these hcbus

 

[jeyhard tharuler]

TS...T.ssss....T.ssss..U!

Texas Southern.

 

[robby valentino]

alot of them suck....some are good....but a majority aren't

and if you go to a crappy one...you will definitely get your degree mike jordan fadeaway'd into the trash can at various companies

btw

@ dude sayin he wouldnt shoot howard down due to scores...when wecompare school to school avg GPA's and things like that are VERY important....

 

[mdotte]

Norfolk State in August...Gimme Some Info

 

[joebonnano]

Best decision ive ever made in my life. ill be graduating in a week. Its an experience you can not get anywhere else in life.
Unless you grow up in an all black city, like some of us have.

I never understood why a person would want to go to a HBCU until I worked at a predominatly white High School when I graduated. The counselors (all white) werea joke to the black kids, because they met questions about Alabama State with "You mean University of Alabama? Alabama doesn't have a state universitynamed after it" I kid you not... As diversity coordinator, I helped a bunch of kids get info and what not on HBCU's, and I helped get a Colombian intoFAMU. Cool kid.

I grew up in Detroit, so keeping with an all black society wasn't really in my best interest. Like people have said: it's not a true picture of life. Iasw exactly THREE white faces in all my 12 years of schooling. THREE. And none of them were in my grade. Two were younger and one was older. Paul actuallylooked like Jesus, but thats another story. The fact is, when I got to picking a school, I didn't want to go where I'd been, I wanted to see where Iwas going... get it?

I had many a friend go to one, and let me tell you: some of the work was downright laughable. I'm not saying it's all like that, but my ex-girl, whowas not a rocket scientist, was able to take 21 credits a semester and graduate with Honors, all while maintaining a hectic party schedule. If I'd triedthat at MSU, I'd have flunked out three times

. But she did go to Howard, and I guess we've already established the aura of the Bison is amisnomer...

Fact is, most of the schools are small enough where the student gets nurtured, so there is always bound to be good success at an institution like that. Statehad 43K students when I was there, and we were basically all numbers to absentee professors until I actually got into my Major (kinesiology) and then theclasses and personal attention were greatly changed for the better.

I'd never change the fact that I was "the black guy" in class, because most of the time where you work, you're going to be that guy anyway.However one thing I couldn't have gotten were the opportunities to room and board with some pretty cool white dudes who I'm still friends with to thisday. One of my old roommates is a regional distributor for Budweiser, which also ditributes Jack... So there that goes.

Anyway it's all about connections. I'd love to say you can get as many great connections at an HBCU as you can at another U, but that's just notthe case. It's great to go to school with all your own, but that's not really going to help you after school, save for the rare occasion somebody youinterview with happened upon your alma mater, but even then it's just a conversation starter and really not too much more...

 

[udub3]

interesting article from the ajc this morning. a lot quicker read than it looks.

http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/atlanta/stories/2008/05/11/morehouseman_0512.html

Morehouse valedictorian stands out -- he's white
Joshua Packwood says college provided him a perspective he wouldn't have gotten elsewhere

By ERRIN HAINES
Associated Press
Published on: 05/12/08
From his first day at Morehouse College - the country's only institution of higher learning dedicated to the education of black men -Joshua Packwood has been a standout.

His popularity got him elected dorm president as a freshman. His looks and physique made him a fashion-show favorite. His intellect madehim a Rhodes Scholar finalist. His work ethic landed him a job at the prestigious investment banking firm Goldman Sachs in New York City.
[table][tr][td]


John Amis/Associated Press

(ENLARGE)
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Morehouse College junior Brandon Douglas (left) catches up with senior Joshua Packwood. When he graduates on Sunday, Packwood will be Morehouse's first white valedictorian.
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]


John Amis/Associated Press

(ENLARGE)
[/td] [/tr][tr][td]Joshua Packwood maintained a perfect grade point average during his four years at Morehouse.
[/td] [/tr][tr][td] [table][tr][td] [table][tr][td] • Video

Higher education

• Graduation schedule for Georgia technical colleges
• Here's the schedule of college graduations in Georgia
• Morehouse valedictorian stands out -- he's white
• Students sell 'zebra prank' T-shirts, cover damages
• Agnes Scott students dean retires after 34 years

• Interactive database: They charge, we pay

[/td] [/tr][/table][/td] [/tr][/table][/td] [/tr][/table]
But it's his skin that has made all of this an anomaly. This month, Packwood is set to take the stage and address his classmates as the first whitevaledictorian in Morehouse's 141-year history.

The 22-year-old from Kansas City, Mo., will graduate Sunday with a perfect 4.0 GPA and a degree in economics.

He could have gone elsewhere, to a school like Columbia, Stanford or Yale, but his four-year journey through Morehouse has taught him a few things that theycould not, and he makes it clear that he has no regrets.

"I've been forced to see the world in a different perspective, that I don't think I could've gotten anywhere else," he said."None of the Ivies, no matter how large their enrollment is, no matter how many Nobel laureates they have on their faculty ... none of them could'veprovided me with the perspective I have now."

Impressive credentials

When Packwood applied to Morehouse, he had frequent conversations with George Gray, an alumnus who was a recruiter at the school. Gray was impressed byPackwood's credentials and spent months trying to talk the sought-after senior into choosing Morehouse over other elite schools.

"He had outstanding numbers," said Gray, now director of admissions at historically black Philander Smith College in Little Rock, Ark. "Hewas the kind of kid we were looking for to be a presidential scholar."

After several conversations, Packwood began to suspect that Gray had no idea that he was white. His suspicions were confirmed when one of Gray's callscaught Packwood in the middle of track practice.

"Don't let the white kids walk you down," Gray quipped.

"Wait," Packwood re-sponded. "You know I'm white, right?"

Silence. Uneasy laughter. Confirmation.

"The challenge was to get the best student that we could, and Josh definitely fit that," Gray said.

And for Packwood, knowing that he had been picked on his merits, and not as a token white recruit, made the difference.

"That said I could come here and, ironically, be accepted for who I am," Packwood said. "I thought I made the right decision then, and I knowI made the right decision now."

It was not as if this was the first time Packwood experienced life in the minority. He was among the few white students in his class at Grandview SeniorHigh School in suburban Kansas City, Mo. He has mixed-race siblings and his mother was married to an African-American. Packwood's experiences growing uphave helped him navigate black culture while remaining comfortable with his own complexion.

Packwood's mere presence on campus wouldn't make history at this school founded by a black minister and cabinetmaker two years after the end of theCivil War. Howard Zehr, Morehouse's first white student, graduated in 1966, and there have been dozens of other whites on campus since.

And so Packwood turned down Columbia University, postponing his dream of living in New York City. He ignored some in his family who warned that he might nothave the same opportunities he would have as a Columbia graduate, and headed South.

Packwood still laughs when he remembers his first day on campus, wandering the grounds in pajama pants and getting stares from black classmates who wonderedif the freshman wasn't a wayward student from Georgia Tech, Georgia State or perhaps Emory University.

After convincing the photographer to take his student ID, Packwood headed to his room in Brazeal Hall.

Shortly after, his roommate arrived with his mother. Four years later, Packwood still can't get over the irony: After years of being one of a few blacksat majority-white schools in Dallas, Phillip Smithey had come to Morehouse to get the "black experience."

Instead, he was sharing a room with the only white guy in his class.

An honest voice

When he came to Morehouse, Packwood was sweating a bit under his swagger, which is why he was reluctant to run for president of his dorm at the end of hisfreshman year. The novelty was wearing off, but Packwood didn't want his new friends to think he was the white guy trying to "act black" or takeover their school.

Classes proved to be a challenge socially and academically when the discussions shifted to issues of race. Once, Packwood was asked to sit on a panel aboutinterracial relationships. Though he had dated black girls since high school, he spent the first hour of the panel getting warmed up, feeling out the crowd andtrying to couch his thoughts.

"It was kind of heated, and there were very strong views on both sides," he said. "But eventually I realized they put me on the panel not tojust pander to the crowd, but to voice my opinion."

Packwood said such exchanges taught him a lesson.

"Sometimes I kind of wanted to hold back," he acknowledged. "A lot of the professors and students have been like, 'No, don't holdback. We want your perspective here. If we're not going to get it from you, it's going to be very difficult for us to get it somewhere else.'"

Both students and faculty, he said, seemed to appreciate his honesty.

"The few times I have held back and tried to pick my words wisely or even go against what I truly believe, that's when I've caught the mostflak," he said.

Senior 'is Morehouse'

With each semester, Packwood's grades remained high, his confidence grew and his résumé became more impressive. Summers were spent on Wall Street atMorgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, he studied abroad in London and Costa Rica, and his studies have taken him to China and Switzerland.

As Morehouse embraced him, Packwood became an unlikely ambassador for the school.

"Josh Packwood is Morehouse," the college's president, Robert Franklin, said in his inauguration speech in February. "He happens to beEuro-American and brings much appreciated diversity to our campus."

Wendell Marsh, a junior English and French major who is black, said talking to Packwood as a high school senior helped make up his mind to come toMorehouse.

"Right now we live in a time where people say the black institution is obsolete, that you can get a better education at a majority institution,"Marsh said. "To see a white guy who had declined Harvard for Morehouse, I figured it was good enough for me."

Packwood raised "the bar for everyone," said Stanton Fears, a senior economics major.

"The best man got it, that's how I look at it," Fears said. "It's about equality here, too. If he wants to come here and make a namefor himself, he should be allowed the same types of things we're allowed."

Being surrounded by black men for his undergraduate career has taught him more about diversity, Packwood said.

"I've been here for four years and yet, I cannot give you the definition of black," he said. "I cannot tell you what a black man is. Ireally learned to look much deeper. It takes a lot of effort to know people."