MINNEAPOLIS
Colleges have long despaired over how best to attract more minority students into advanced degree programs. But it’s not a problem at a number of schools where students earn their degrees online, which are seeing unexpectedly high minority enrollment.
That includes Minneapolis-based Walden University, a for-profit, accredited school that is in the top ranks nationally for minority graduate enrollment in several degree programs. This summer, Diverse: Issues in Higher Education magazine listed Walden as one of the top 10 schools in the nation for master’s degree in education, to people of color, seventh in business doctorates to Blacks and in the top 20 for awarding doctorates in psychology to Hispanics.
Students and education experts say convenience and flexibility is one driving factor for those who go online to seek degrees. And some minority students say there’s another less quantifiable factor: acceptance.
“Everyone, to me at least, is judged on a fair basis,” says Carolyn Estes, a Black woman pursuing a doctorate in epidemiology through Walden. “When you’re online, nobody’s a minority.”
Estes says she sometimes felt judged for her skin color when she was earning a chemistry degree at the University of Illinois.
“I like working alone,” says Estes, 26, who lives in suburban Chicago. “I have a good experience with the discussions online. I get to meet people in honesty.”
Walden leaders say they’re tuned in to the diversity of their students and are trying to reach out to people of color. This summer, they hired Manuel Tomas Barrera, a past chairman of the education department at Metropolitan State University, as dean of the College of Education. He’s part of a larger outreach to Hispanic groups.
