HispanicBusiness

Forty colleges make up the Best Schools for Hispanics in the four postgraduate course categories. Geographically, Florida leads the way with eight universities, Texas comes second with seven and California comes next with five. Eight states are represented with one university on the list. Several universities, such as the University of Texas at El Paso, the University of Texas at San Antonio and the University of New Mexico were on more than one list.

For the fourth year in a row, the Georgia Institute of Technology has ranked No. 1 for its diversity efforts in relation to Hispanic students seeking degrees from the institute's College of Engineering. One other university also repeats at the top of the rankings. The University of Texas at El Paso has ranked No. 1 in the business school category for two years.

New to the No. 1 rankings is the University of Texas at Austin's School of Law and the University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

After a four-year absence, Yale University's School of Management returns to the best business schools list at No. 9, and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business makes its debut at No. 6 on the list.

There is only one new entry this year on the best engineering school list, Cal Poly Pomona. There were no new entries on the best law and medical schools lists.

By the Numbers

Hispanics make up the largest percentage of students, 26.3 percent, seeking a master of business administration degree, up from 13.6 percent five years ago. Hispanics attend law and medical schools at about the same rate, 15.6 for the former and 15.5 percent for the latter, up respectively from 13.5 percent and 14.6 percent five years ago.

While Hispanic enrollment at engineering schools has increased over five years, from 7 percent in 2007 to 8.5 percent today, it is the weakest of the four postgraduate categories. The fact that Hispanics only make up 8.5 percent of students pursuing a postgraduate degree in engineering and make up only 8.2 percent of those who receive an advanced degree in engineering underscores an assessment that Hispanics are underrepresented in careers that are among the fastest growing in the United States -- science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers. A March 2010 report from the Center for Urban Education said that the National Science Board indicated that jobs in science and engineering are expected to grow 26 percent by 2014, compared to a 13 percent growth in all other occupations.

A National Science Foundation (NSF) study found that Hispanics earned 7.7 percent of bachelor's, 4.7 percent of master's and 2.9 percent of doctoral degrees in science and engineering in 2006. By 2008, the NSF found, Hispanics represented only 4 percent of the science and engineering workforce, proportions way below that of Hispanics in the general population.

In terms of graduation, the rates of Hispanics gaining their degrees roughly parallels enrollment. Overall, an average of 10.8 percent of Hispanics per year earns degrees in one of the four course categories HispanTelligence tracks. This year, 13.8 percent of total degrees conferred went to Hispanics, up from 8.6 percent in 2007.

Again, business had the highest percentage of degrees conferred. Hispanics earned 22.9 percent of the MBA's conferred, up a whopping 6 percent since 2007. Hispanics were granted degrees in law and medicine at a fairly consistent rate -- 13.1 percent earned J.D. degrees, slightly less than the 13.8 percent awarded in 2007; 15.4 percent earned M.D. degrees, up from 10.5 percent in 2007.