The Princeton Review ranked TCU #15 on this year’s “Little Race/Class Interaction” list.
Providence College in Rhode Island topped the list.
The list highlighted schools that did not have students with a wide variety of racial backgrounds and generally came from the same social class.
Information from online student surveys helped place schools accordingly on the Princeton Review’s lists. University administrative contacts for each school surveyed were notified, and could choose to inform the student body of the online survey or allow Princeton Review employees to hand out paper surveys on campus.
The four-section online survey contained open-ended questions, in which students submit narrative responses, and multiple-choice questions. For example, a student may answer the question “How many out-of-class hours do you spend studying each day?” on a five-point scale starting at zero hours per day.
Once the surveys have been completed, the Princeton Review assigns scores to each college and begins the comparison process. In this case, TCU had high enough scores on questions concerning racial and class divides to make it on this year’s “Little Race/Class Interaction” list.
Graduate student Zach Harrell said he agreed with the rankings at the university level.
“Compared to other schools, I would say TCU is not that diverse,” Harrell said. “I know we represent most areas of the globe, but most of the students are Caucasian.”
According to the College Board website, 76 percent of TCU students are white. The Princeton Review listed TCU with 87 minority professors out of 845 total professors, or about 10 percent.
Harrell, who also earned his undergraduate degree in mathematics at TCU, said he felt his personal experience at TCU included diversity as well.
“I was part of International Student Association,” Harrell said. “I always interacted with different cultures.”
Felisha Trevino, a junior nursing student, shared a different opinion on the matter. As the president of Chi Upsilon Sigma, a national Latin sorority, Trevino said she thought TCU provided for students of all backgrounds.
“It definitely depends on which way you look at it,” Trevino said. “Organization-wise, we are very diverse. We have groups for any personality or any race. If you look only at demographics, however, it’s different.”
Trevino said she hoped to bring more diversity to the campus. Trevino worked at a local high school where she had the opportunity to mentor students who might want to attend colleges such as TCU.
“Being Hispanic, I would appreciate having a greater Hispanic community, but I work to bring more Hispanic students to TCU,” she said.
Despite the high ranking on the “Little Race/Class Interaction” list, the Princeton Review considered TCU a “Best Western College” and ranked the school #8 on the “Major Frat and Sorority Scene” list.
“For a private, Christian university, I think TCU is trying very hard,” Trevino said. “We don’t want to have a stereotype of what TCU is.”
