HispanicBusiness

Our law school survey was limited to programs accredited by the American Bar Association in the Official American Bar Association Guide to Approved Law Schools, 2000 Edition.

Likewise, our business school survey was limited to programs accredited by either the American Council of Business Schools and Programs or the International Association for Management Education in Peterson's Guide to MBA Programs, 2000.

Questionnaires requesting information on the following six parameters were sent to each institution. A point system was then developed wherein up to five points were awarded in each category.

-- Enrollment: This category consisted of two parameters – number of Hispanic students currently enrolled and percentage of Hispanic students to total enrollment.
-- Faculty: The percentage of full-time Hispanic faculty members among total full-time faculty was calculated and ranked.
-- Student services: The number of special programs that recruit Hispanic students in each school, the number of mentorship programs available to Hispanic students, and the number of Hispanic student support organizations active on campus were considered. Each of these was ranked on a scale of one to five and the average was taken for the final rating.
-- Retention rate: Retention rates were derived by dividing the number of first-year Hispanic students who returned to attend their second year by the number of first-year Hispanic students.
-- Reputation: All graduate programs were ranked on a scale of one to five on the basis of the U.S. News & World Report ranking of programs in the Best Graduate Schools, 2001 Edition.

The above criteria were summed and a rating was assigned to each school on the basis of the total score.