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Simmons College Named One of Nation's 50 Top Colleges for African Americans

BOSTON (September 1, 2006) — Simmons College, a leading small private university in Boston, MA, has been named one of the nation's "50 top colleges for African Americans" by a respected national business magazine for African-Americans.

The ranking appears in the September 2006 issue of "Black Enterprise," a New York-based national magazine for African Americans that focuses on business, management, and career issues.

More than 1,400 four-year colleges and universities whose black student enrollment is above three percent were reviewed by a group of 500 African American higher education professionals such as college presidents, chancellors and directors of student affairs, for their assessments of the academic and social environments for African American students. Data from the U.S. Department of Education also was analyzed.

The schools making the "top 50" list were those that had the best total scores on black student graduation rate and academic and social environment. Reviewers also factored in total black academic enrollment and black undergraduate students as a percentage of total undergraduate enrollment. (Credit for the percentage variable was capped at 50 percent for historically black colleges).

The variable given the heaviest weighting was black graduation rate, followed by the average academic and social environment scores.

The graduation rate of African American students at Simmons College is 88 percent. The undergraduate enrollment at Simmons is 1,874, with 121 African American students.

"Having a diverse, warm, intellectually stimulating and welcoming environment is one of our most important goals at Simmons College,' said Simmons President Susan Scrimshaw. " From the classrooms to the residence halls to student activities, we strive to help every student feel welcomed, supported, challenged, successful and empowered.

"We are delighted that African American leaders in higher education have said Simmons is among the best."

Simmons College, a small private university in the heart of Boston, also recently was named as a 2007 "Best College" in its category by U.S. News & World Report, and named one of the "361 Best Colleges" by the 2007 Princeton Review.

Simmons College has a pioneering undergraduate college for women; renowned graduate programs for women and men in social work, health studies, library and information science and liberal arts; and the nation's only MBA program designed for women.