African Americans Enrolling and Receiving Degrees in Graduate/Professional Degree Programs

Abstract

After decades of exclusion from graduate and professional education opportunities, the number of African Americans seeking advanced degrees has been gradually increasing since the mid-twentieth century. However, the participation of African Americans across the professions and the academy remains low. The authors explore the "pipeline" leading to graduate and professional education and present evidence that there is a critical bottleneck between initial enrollment in post-baccalaureate programs and successful degree completion.