Almost half of all Latino students in higher education are enrolled in just 6% of the colleges and universities in the United States.

This concentration of Latino enrollment contributed to the creation of a new group: Hispanic-serving institutions. The defining characteristic of HSIs is their demography, not their mission.

According to the definition in the Higher Education Amendments of 1992, an HSI is an institution that has:

• an enrollment of undergraduate full-time students that is at least 25% Hispanic,
• of which not less than 50% of the Hispanic students are low-income individuals (i.e., 150% of the poverty level)
• who are first generation college students (i.e., whose parent(s) did not complete a baccalaureate degree) and another 25% are either low-income individuals or first generation college students.

HSIs have other characteristics in common: Most of them are public institutions, most have open admissions, and most are in areas with large Latino populations.

Why an HSI might be right for you

Common reasons students give for attending HSIs include

• their smaller, more personalized size
• affordability
• closeness to home and family
• friendly environments

If these factors are important to you, consider applying to an HSI.

You might not know a college is an HSI. Unlike other school groups (HBCUs, Catholic colleges, etc.), Hispanic-serving institutions might not market themselves that way. To see which schools are HSIs, visit the Hispanic Association of Collleges and Universities' website.