A Program for Elite Blacks
    A June 5 editorial in the New York Times called our attention to a college program for high-ability black students. These students are recipients of the Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Scholarship. Conceived by the Baltimore philanthropists whose name it bears, the Scholarship's goal is to train African American scientists. According to the Times, the program has been a brilliant success.

We approached the Times article cautiously. We have, after all, become used to undeserved praise. Head Start comes first to mind. From its beginnings, this multi-billion dollar program has enjoyed continued support from the press despite all evidence that it produces no lasting educational benefit. The Times writer, Brent Staples, added to our misgivings by rehashing badly worn excuses for black academic failure. He blamed the generally disappointing academic performance of African Americans on their fear that white professors do not respect them intellectually, and on anxiety caused by feelings of being judged by race rather than ability. This aside, the editorial did contain some compelling numbers. In the first seven years of the Meyerhoff Scholarship Program, 84 percent of its students went on to pursue Ph.D.s or medical degrees. Recent Meyerhoff classes boost that number to 95 percent. Impressive by any measure, we decided to take a hard look.

The home of the Meyerhoff Scholarship is the Baltimore County campus of the University of Maryland (UMBC). It is a medium size Carnegie Doctoral II university. To learn about the Scholarship, we went to the UMBC website and spoke to some faculty. We discovered that the Scholarship was created in 1988 with a $522,000 grant from the Meyerhoffs. Its original intent was to increase the ranks of African American men in the natural sciences and engineering. A year later women became eligible.

In 1989, as the first Meyerhoff students were arriving on campus, a legal battle was brewing thirty miles down the road at College Park. Its outcome was to influence race-based scholarships everywhere. The College Park campus of the University had been running a scholarship program known as the Banneker. Only blacks were eligible. The Banneker's legality was challenged by a Hispanic student with the improbable surname Podberesky. He was ineligible to apply because he was not African American. However, he had graduated from high school with a 3.56 grade point average and scored 1340 on the SAT. His credentials were head and shoulders above those of the standard Banneker applicant. Podberesky thought he deserved a Banneker Scholarship. A three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed. It ruled the Banneker Program unconstitutional on the grounds that it was race-specific. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the University's appeal, and the Banneker Scholarship was forced to broaden its ranks and accept nonblack applicants. The Meyerhoff Scholarship, also exclusively for blacks, was similarly affected by the ruling. It opened its doors to nonblacks. Today, about 75 percent of Meyerhoff Scholars are African American. The Program is mostly local with about ninety percent of its students coming from Maryland.

The Scholars
    The Meyerhoff Program enrolls about 40 black students a year. They have at least a "B" high-school average and a minimum math SAT of 600. Typically, Meyerhoff Scholars exceed these requirements. Promotional material advertises that the fall 1997 Meyerhoff freshmen averaged 1285 on the combined math and verbal SAT. We can gain perspective by looking at how African Americans perform nationally. In 1997, the national mean for blacks on the combined SAT was 857 with a standard deviation of 198. Thus, Meyerhoff Scholars were separated from black SAT takers at large by a whopping 2.2 SD. In fact, the Meyerhoffs and their college-bound black cohorts across the country barely overlap. The Scholars stack up well against white students too. In 1997, whites averaged 1052 on the combined SAT with a standard deviation of 206. In that year, Meyerhoff Scholars averaged 1.2 SD higher than college-bound whites.

By white or Asian standards Meyerhoff Scholars do not form an elite group. A combined SAT of 1285 will not get a white or Asian into the Ivy League. The top end of the Meyerhoffs are, however, impressively formidable. All this aside, Meyerhoff graduates fulfill the goals of their benefactors. They go on to graduate and professional schools, studying in the sciences, medicine, mathematics, computer science and engineering. No other program in the country comes even close in this respect.

The Program
   Robert and Jane Meyerhoff set up an outstanding package: four years with full tuition and fees, room and board, plus an annual $1000 stipend to cover expenses like books. The Scholars also participate in a fully-paid ten-week summer research internship. Funds for extra curricular travel also are available. In return, the Scholars must major in one of the natural sciences, mathematics, computer science or engineering, and plan to pursue the Ph.D. or M.D./Ph.D. in a technical field.

Before the Meyerhoff students begin their first semester, a strategy of systematic spoon feeding begins. It continues until they graduate. The summer preceding their first semester, Meyerhoffs attend a six-week "Bridge Program." There the students, all with at least a 600 math SAT, take noncredit (i.e., remedial) courses in chemistry and physics. They also take courses in study skills and time management. Depending on a placement exam score, the fledgling Meyerhoffs take courses for credit in either pre-calculus or calculus. Finally, they take a course in African-American studies.

Meyerhoff Scholars live together during the Summer Bridge Program, a practice that continues throughout their freshman year. According to the Program description, ". . . students begin to get to know each other and establish strong bonds, creating a valuable support system." If there is one thing that separates the Meyerhoff Scholarship from all others, it is this support system. It virtually defines the program.

From the moment they show up until the time they graduate, Meyerhoff Scholars are treated like special people. For four years they will be coddled like a prized football team. The Meyerhoff staff will hold frequent group meetings with them, reinforcing Program values of striving for academic achievement, supporting one's peers, and preparing for graduate or professional school. Also like footballers, these elite students will have personal tutors. They will live together, take classes together, study together. Each will be assigned a mentor recruited from among area professionals in science, engineering and math. They will be constantly reminded that they are special. The Scholars will be immersed in the research culture early on -- a valuable prelude to a research career. They will work in faculty research labs, and have expense-paid summer opportunities to work in quality laboratories off campus, including those of Nobel laureates.

A sizable staff, employed by the Program, closely monitors each Scholar's progress toward the degree. Unofficially, grades less than "B" are unacceptable. When a Meyerhoff student get less than a "B," he retakes the course. Only the higher grade goes into his GPA. The system virtually ensures the success of the student. He simply is not allowed to be average.

On the UMBC website Hrabowski reports the result of an experiment he performed to test the efficacy of the Meyerhoff system. In a study to be published with K. I. Maton, Hrabowski describes the experiment. It compares freshman-year outcomes of African American Meyerhoff students with matched African American non-Meyerhoff students. The matching characteristics are shown in Table 1.

. . . more than one black Ivy Leaguer has become disillusioned and dropped out to opt for a less elite environment.