Aisha Tyler Says Black Students Should Attend Predominately White Institutions

Aisha Tyler Says Black Students Should Attend Predominately White Institutions

Actress and comedian Aisha Tyler recently chatted with TIME Money to give Black teens advice on picking the right college.

The actress encourages African-American students to attend universities where racism openly occurs instead of campuses where they are in the majority.

Dartmouth represented a great opportunity. I wanted to go to the best possible school I could go to. Dartmouth is a small school with high-caliber teaching. Our classes were all taught by professors, not teaching assistants. I felt like that was a school where I could make a big splash. The opportunities would be grander and more robust for me there than at a school with 40,000 students. I didn’t mind being in a school with a small African-American population. The African-American-community was very tight, and that was great. But I also wanted to interact with other types of folks. Every culture is very important. Dartmouth has always been dedicated to diversity of culture.

Aisha says students should “step out your comfort zone” and pick a university that challenges you more than their high school setting…

I’d say, “Step out of your comfort zone. Don’t pick a college that replicates what you did in high school. Test yourself in an unfamiliar context so that you can learn to succeed no matter where you are placed, so that you know you can excel.”

What do you think of Aisha’s advice to Black students??