GNO, Inc. Sunday Night Highlight – Xavier University Named Top Five HBCU in USA 🙌
Forbes released its first-ever ranking of America’s Top HBCUs this week, and Xavier University of Louisiana came in at #4 among private HBCUs nationwide. The ranking uses the same methodology as Forbes’ 2026 list of America’s Top 500 Colleges: student outcomes and return on investment. Xavier ranked behind only Howard, Spelman, and Morehouse.
Xavier highlights include:
- Xavier produces more African American students who graduate from medical schools each year than any other university in the United States
- Xavier ranks as the #1 HBCU for upward mobility, showing a success rate of 79% where students rise from the bottom two income quintiles into the top three
- Mid-career graduates earn a median salary of $104,100
Xavier’s medical school pipeline is about to run deeper. Xavier is partnering with Ochsner Health to launch the Xavier Ochsner College of Medicine, which will become the only HBCU medical school in the Gulf South and just the fifth allopathic HBCU medical school in the country. The school earned candidate status from the Liaison Committee on Medical Education in late 2025, a key step toward accreditation, and will be based downtown at Benson Tower in New Orleans.
Writes Forbes: “Founded in 1925, the nation’s only historically Catholic HBCU has built an outsized reputation for sending Black students to medical school. Its best-known programs are in biology/pre-med, chemistry, pharmacy, physician assistant studies, medical laboratory science, neuroscience, health informatics and speech pathology. Famous grads include Regina Benjamin, a former U.S. Surgeon General who won a MacArthur “genius award.”
You can read the full Forbes HBCU rankings here.
Congratulations to Xavier leadership, faculty, and students!
