>>13707872In undergrad, I had a friend who went to some HBCU in Baltimore. I think it was called Morgan or something. I was going to UMD College Park at the time, and I used to visit him there a couple times a month. Ironically, his school and the neighborhood had a really laid back feel, and it was definitely a lot less woke and SJWish and neoliberal than trendy big name universities that white liberal yuppies go to.
That being said his school was also pretty small and did not seem to have a lot of facilities, nor did it feel like a hustling and bustling center of research. Of course, I'm sure some of the big name HBCUs would have more of a big research university type feel.
Based on my own experience, I would definitely recommend an HBCU or a small liberal arts college over a big state school or ivy. The culture at universities in America differs dramatically based on region and the type of school, and I think that a lot of liberal arts college and probably HBCUs would provide you more of an authentic, traditional, and "scholarly" university experience compared to the commercialized, professionalized, bureaucratized you will get at big, mainstream colleges.
That being said, a lot of HBCUs and liberal arts colleges do not have the big name and prestige that other schools do. Again, I think it would probably be more of an enjoyable intellectual experience if you go somewhere like an HBCU, but just make sure it has at least at least a tiny bit of name recognition, because a lot of HBCUs and liberal arts colleges don't have much name recognition.