College-bound students who believe that studying with people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds is important will want to consider student-body diversity when choosing a school. To identify colleges where students are most likely to encounter undergraduates from racial or ethnic groups different from their own, U.S. News factors in the total proportion of minority students, leaving out international students, and the overall mix of groups. The data are drawn from each institution's 2010-2011 school year student body.
The categories we use in our calculations are African-Americans who are non-Hispanic, Hispanic, American Indian, Pacific Islander, whites who are non-Hispanic, and multiracial. Students who did not identify themselves as members of any of those demographic groups were classified as whites who are non-Hispanic for the purpose of these calculations. Our formula produces a diversity index that ranges from 0.0 to 1.0. The closer a school's number is to 1.0, the more diverse is the student population.
