There are several barriers to increasing the number of black graduate students in the universities. The first impediment is the loss of overall graduate student support which will be sharply felt beginning in the fall of 1971. The Nixon Administration's program places a heavy emphasis on loans and persons from low income families are often reluctant to add to their debts accumulated from their undergraduate years. Another problem is that a relatively small number of black graduates apply to graduate school; many are siphoned off into industrial and business careers after graduation. A third barrier is the fact that black applicants tend to concentrate in a small number of fields: generally the humanities and social sciences, with almost no applications in the engineering field. Given these factors, the criteria used for admissions must be examined. The validity of the usual predictors varies widely across different areas of study, and motivation may be more important than undergraduate grade point average. (AF)