How ‘A Different World’ Helped Drive a 26% Surge in HBCU Enrollment
A new group of students are about to experience life at Hillman College.
Netflix has rebooted beloved series A Different World for a new generation. The new show, which premieres September 24, follows Deborah Wayne — daughter of Dwayne Wayne and Whitley Gilbert from the original series — as she begins her freshman year at Hillman.
Maleah Joi Moon stars as Deborah Wayne, with original cast members Kadeem Hardison, Jasmine Guy, Darryl M. Bell, and Cree Summer reprising their roles. New cast members include Alijah Kai , Cornell Young IV, Jordan Aaron Hall, Kennedi Reece, and Chibuikem Uche. Debbie Allen, who produced and directed many episodes of the original series, returns as executive producer and directs the first episode.
‘A Different World’ showed ‘different facets of young Black life’
We’ll have to wait and see if Netflix’s take on A Different World captures the same magic as the original show, which aired for six seasons between 1987 and 1993. The sitcom, a spinoff of The Cosby Show, is a Gen X cultural touchstone and was groundbreaking for portraying life at an HBCU.
“We represented all these different facets of young Black life that we had never seen before,” Summer, who played Freddie Brooks, told TODAY in 2024.
While Hillman is a fictional school, it was based on real HBCUs, including Howard University, of which Allen is an alumna. In 2024, she called the school in Washington, D.C., the “blueprint” for Hillman. Some exterior shots for A Different World were filmed at Spelman College and Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta.
‘A Different World’ sparked more interest in HBCUs
The sitcom proved to be a powerful marketing tool for HBCUs. Enrollment at HBCUs jumped by 26% from 1976 to 1994, with the biggest increase coming in the years when A Different World was on TV, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics.
“Not a day goes by, for all of us who were involved with the show, where someone doesn’t come up to us and say, ‘I went to an HBCU because I watched A Different World,” Bell told CNN in 2024, when the original cast went on tour to raise money for scholarships and boost enrollment at historically Black-serving institutions.
Unfortunately, fans of the show don’t always realize that Hillman is fictional.
“The only sad thing about A Different World is the same frequency with which folks come up and say, I want to apply to Hillman,” Bell said. “And I’m like, ‘I’m sorry, that’s where we able to draw the line.’ Hillman is not real; you cannot go to Hillman. You could go to Hampton, you go to Howard, there’s some other choices. But Hillman is not in the cards.
All 10 episodes of A Different World premiere September 24 on Netflix. All six seasons of the original show are also streaming on Netflix.
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