This preliminary report summarizes findings from a study of over 400 black graduate and professional students on eight, majority white, state-supported university campuses nationally. Students reported high professional achievement goals and self-concepts, generally came from families displaying high levels of academic and occupational achievement, and reported above average undergraduate grades and rankings. The findings suggest that the experiences of black students in graduate and higher education are less than optimal. On measures of academic performance, social adjustment, campus race relations, and interactions with faculty, student responses were at best ambivalent--more often negative. Such findings should be seen in relation to the national decline in black student enrollments in advanced study degree programs since the mid-70s and the effect of this trend on the black community. Strategies for ameliorating the campus experiences of black graduate and professional students include: (1) attempts to achieve greater involvement of black students in the informal networks of training programs; (2) increasing the presence of students with diverse backgrounds and viewpoints, resulting in a more open institution sensitive to the special needs of black and other nontraditional student populations; (3) the creation of mechanisms facilitating their right to appeal unfair actions or decisions; and (4) ensuring equal access to important professional information and resources. (RDN)