DSU ranks in top 3 of public HBCUs for 5th straight year

What seems to be an annual lock now, Delaware State University has ranked as a top three Historically Black College and University by the acclaimed U.S. News & World Report College Rankings.

The rankings for 2025’s best colleges, which were published Tuesday, lists DSU as the third best public HBCU, and the ninth best overall HBCU. 

Changes to rankings

Two factors introduced the prior year were dropped from this year’s rankings calculations for National Universities and historically Black colleges and universities: first-generation graduation rates and first-generation graduation rate performance, according to the rankings.

With original weights of 2.5% each, these factors were removed due to limitations with College Scorecard data, per the U.S. News data team.

“These overall rankings are not as important as the independent indicators we care about most,” said Tony Allen, DSU’s president. “Can we graduate a student from a low-resource community at the same rate or better than we graduate students from more stable backgrounds? Are our students getting the kind of teaching in the classroom that prepares them for a smaller, more connected, more complicated world?”

Among public HBCUs, only Florida A&M University and North Carolina A&T University ranked ahead of DSU.

“Are we committed to growing by meeting our students wherever they are, online? In the classroom? Overseas?” Allen said, “and is our commitment to the state of Delaware indicative of an institution with a clear role in helping the state take advantage of its greatest strengths and solve some of our most pressing concerns? If we can answer these questions with an eye toward the future, then our best days are always in front of us.”

DSU has consistently had a growing enrollment, in part due to the state-sponsored full tuition Inspire scholarship.

RELATED: DSU sets record enrollment…again

The school also cited its enhanced research portfolio, now at about $30 million, and its continued leadership in the HBCU community. 

Among the University’s notable achievements, leadership includes:

• The convening of a national HBCU Philanthropy Symposium, now in its 14th year.
• The first-ever national Black Farmers Conference was held last spring on campus.
• A new Early Childhood Innovation Center serving childcare providers across the state and opening its doors in early 2025.
• An aviation program that continues to lead the airline industry in producing more pilots of color than any other place in the country.

RELATED: DSU’s early ed. center awards 13 degrees, 223 credentials in first year

The rankings touted DSU for its undergraduate teaching, innovation and the performance of students from low-resource communities. 

The university also received high marks in its peer assessment category, ranking  no. 10 among all HBCUs.

Just last week, the Biden administration announced an increase to $17 billion commitment to HBCUs at the White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities Week Conference in Philadelphia.

Allen has chaired Biden’s Board of Advisors on HBCUs since 2021.

“It is always good to know that we are highly thought of by our peers,” said Dr. Lynda Murray-Jackson, senior associate vice president of institutional effectiveness. “Such respect from our college and university peers gives us encouragement that despite the current challenges spread through the higher education landscape, we continue as an institution to head in the right trajectory.”