{"id":62947,"date":"2021-01-09T12:16:25","date_gmt":"2021-01-09T20:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/soulofamerica.com\/?page_id=62947"},"modified":"2022-09-20T00:24:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-20T07:24:26","slug":"xavier-university","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.soulofamerica.com\/black-colleges\/xavier-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Xavier University"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Xavier

Xavier University in New Orleans<\/strong>; (c) Soul Of America<\/p><\/div>\n

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Xavier University<\/h2>\n
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History<\/strong><\/p>\n

Located in New Orleans, Xavier University was founded as a high school in 1915 by Blessed Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia and her Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, a religious community dedicated to the education of Blacks and Native Americans.<\/p>\n

This small liberal arts college holds the distinction as the only university which is both Black and Catholic, out of the 102 historically Black and 253 Catholic colleges in the United States. <\/p>\n

Over the years, several more entities were added such as a normal school in 1917, the four-year college program in 1925, the College of Pharmacy in 1927, and the Graduate School in 1933. <\/p>\n

Academic Merit<\/strong><\/p>\n

The nearly 4,000 student body is comprised of approximately 53% New Orleans area residents, the balance primarily from out-of-state, the Virgin Islands, and 27 foreign countries. <\/p>\n

Xavier ranks first in the nation in the number of African American students earning undergraduate degrees in biology, physics, and the physical sciences overall. It ranks first in enrolling and graduating African Americans in pharmacy, nearly 25% of the 6,000+ Black pharmacists practicing in the U.S. come from Xavier. <\/p>\n

It ranks first in placing Black students in medical schools. In fact, the 70% acceptance rate of Xavier graduates at medical and dental schools is almost twice the national average, and 93% of those who enter medical and dental schools complete their degree programs.<\/p>\n