FEATURED BESR REPORTS
This featured report by BESR presents a plain-language look at what the public data actually shows about Black student outcomes at Washington's 8 public 4-year universities and 34 community and technical colleges.
WHERE BLACK STUDENTS ENROLL AND GRADUATE
Choosing a college — or supporting a student already enrolled — is one of the highest-stakes decisions a Black family makes. Most of what’s available is glossy: brochures, rankings, friend-of-a-friend stories that never break outcomes out by race or gender. This report is different. It pulls together what official IPEDS, ERDC, and SBCTC data actually shows about how Black students fare at every public college in the state, so families walk into any admissions office, financial aid appointment, or campus visit knowing what to ask.
What’s inside
- How far apart Black six-year graduation rates actually sit across Washington’s universities, and why the gap is wider than families expect
- Why the same campus can be a strong bet for a daughter and a weak one for a son, and the three campuses that break the pattern
- Which enrollment pathway gives Black students the strongest odds of finishing, and why families almost never hear about it
- What the community college graduation headline conceals, and the exact windows where students vanish from the data
- Where Black student communities are concentrated, and where enrollment is quietly shrinking
- The specific questions to bring to a campus visit, the ones a serious institution will be able to answer on the spot
72% → 10%
RANGE OF BLACK 6-YEAR GRADUATION rates across WA’s 4-years
A pathway most families miss
At UW, one route to a degree outperforms the other by a wide margin for Black students.