The growing Haitian population in the United States is directly affecting all institutions of higher education As institutions continue to diversify across the country, HBCUs are also responding to this trend According to Ricard and Brown (2008), HBCUs are changing in order to keep up with the growing demand of institutional diversity, and they recognize that having a diversified student body will make the institutions more competitive Although their historic mission focuses on educating Black students, there remains a gap in the literature on HBCUs on one of the largest Black groups in the United States: the Haitian immigrant In the literature, the Haitian population constitutes approximately 15% of the total US foreign-born population, and 15% of the total Black immigrant population in the US, behind Jamaicans at 18%, respectively Moreover, Haitians make up the fourth largest immigrant population from the Caribbean behind Cubans, Dominicans, and Jamaicans (Anderson, 2015) However, these numbers do not include the hundreds of thousands of Haitians who fled the Country after the devastating earthquake of 2010 nor the thousands of undocumented Haitian immigrants currently living in the US This qualitative phenomenological study sought to explore the college choice process of ten Haitian students who chose to attend a highly selective HBCU located in the Northeast region of the United States Moreover, this study sought to explore how these ten Haitian students developed a sense of belonging to the HBCU campus The primary methods for data collection included semi-structured one-on-one interviews, a demographic questionnaire, and artifact analysis Using the theoretical frameworks of Chapman’s (1981) Model of College Choice and Sense of Belonging, this study discovered the factors that influence Haitian students’ decision to attend a highly selective HBCU centers around family Moreover, this study discovered that Haitian students at a highly selective HBCU described their sense of belonging through various forms of relationships / Includes bibliography / Dissertation (PhD)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016 / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection