Howard University, one of the nation’s top Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), burst into the national news in July when it abruptly canceled enrollment for 500 freshmen, a fifth of the incoming class. The students had ostensibly missed the deadline for establishing they could cover the Washington, D.C. school’s $66,182 total annual cost of attendance.

Isabella Williams, who graduated from Russell County High School in Alabama last May with a 4.3 grade point average and a raft of honors and scholarships, received one of those jarring notices. Howard was more than her dream school; it was a chance to reclaim her family’s legacy, she told Forbes. Her own mother had been forced to drop out of Howard for financial reasons, but an uncle later served as the university’s vice-provost. "I wasn't able to experience much of my family's culture as a child," she said, "so being able to be closer to them and kind of get the same education that they've had was really important to me.” She eventually got her enrollment reinstated (as did more than 200 other students) after her scholarship money was confirmed. Williams insists that she and some of the others who were disenrolled had documented their payment plans on time and were simply waiting for money from loans, scholarships and veterans benefits to be disbursed.

On CNN, Wayne Frederick, Howard’s interim (and former) president, explained the thinking behind the disenrollment letters. While the school is in “high demand,” he said, its graduation rate (most recently 69%) has been declining because it has allowed too many students to start without a viable financial plan in place to complete their degrees.

The Howard episode dramatically illustrates two seemingly contradictory facts about the 10 private and 10 public schools honored on Forbes’ first-ever ranking of America’s Top HBCUs. Their popularity is growing, even as their longstanding financial problems (and those of their students) are worsening.

On July 1, cuts to federal student loans programs and new limits on eligibility for federal Pell Grants for lower-income students started to kick in. All were passed in 2025 as part of Republicans’ One Big Beautiful Bill Act. The reductions pose challenges for all schools, but particularly for HBCUs, which typically have a higher percentage of low-income students than their predominantly white counterparts and have far smaller endowments available to subsidize those students themselves. (According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 56% of HBCU students received Pell Grants in the 2023-2024 school year, compared to 32% of all undergraduates.)

Meanwhile, the nation’s 100 HBCUs, which have historically played an outsized role in educating the nation’s Black doctors, lawyers, judges, engineers and teachers, have experienced a resurgence in popularity. After shrinking from 1976 to 2014, the share of Black college students choosing to attend an HBCU has stabilized and even grown, with the 2020 murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police, the Supreme Court’s 2023 decision outlawing affirmative action, and the Trump Administration’s current assault on college diversity programs leading more Black students to seek out HBCUs for a sense of belonging and connection. (The schools, which were mostly created during the Reconstruction period after the Civil War, now have a student body that is about 75% Black.)

Despite its problems, Howard, the alma mater of former Vice President Kamala Harris, ranks #1 among private schools on our list.

THE TOP HBCUs: PRIVATE

Founded in 1867, Howard has long produced top players in business, science, the arts, journalism and politics and offers a full suite of graduate programs, including medical, dental and law schools. The law school’s most famous grad is Thurgood Marshall, while undergrad alumni include Kamala Harris, Toni Morrison and Chadwick Boseman.

Location: Washington, D.C.

Undergraduate Enrollment: 11,084

Graduate Enrollment: 3,348

Undergraduate Cost of Attendance: $66,182

6-year graduation rate: 69%

Early-career Median pay: $70,600

Mid-career Median pay: $123,200

Founded in 1881 as the nation's first HBCU for women, the still female-only and undergraduate-only college has strong programs in the social sciences, biology, biochemistry, psychology, education, drama and English language and literature. Grads include Alice Walker, Stacey Abrams and current Federal Reserve Board member Lisa Cook.

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Undergraduate Cost of Attendance: $61,683

6-year graduation rate: 76%

Early-career Median pay: $68,000

Mid-career Median pay: $102,700

Founded in 1867 as the nation's only HBCU exclusively for men, Morehouse is known for business administration, political science, computer science and its biology/pre-med studies. (It launched the now separate Morehouse School of Medicine in 1975.) Grads include Martin Luther King Jr., Sen. Raphael Warnock, director Spike Lee and actor Samuel L. Jackson.

Location: Atlanta, Georgia

Undergraduate Cost of Attendance: $59,430

6-year graduation rate: 53%

Early-career Median pay: $71,800

Mid-career Median pay: $126,700

4. Xavier University of Louisiana

Founded in 1925, the nation's only historically Catholic HBCU has built an outsized reputation for sending Black students to medical school. Its best-known programs are in biology/pre-med, chemistry, pharmacy, physician assistant studies, medical laboratory science, neuroscience, health informatics and speech pathology. Famous grads include Regina Benjamin, a former U.S. Surgeon General who won a MacArthur “genius award.”

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana

Undergraduate Enrollment: 2,575

Graduate Enrollment: 207

College of Pharmacy Enrollment: 315

Undergraduate Cost of Attendance: $40,454

6-year graduation rate: 48%

Early-career Median pay: $56,700

Mid-career Median pay: $104,100

5. Hampton University

Founded in 1868, Hampton is known for psychology, biology and STEM, business administration, and journalism and communication. Its most famous graduate is Booker........

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