Harvard is better at admitting low-income students than the University of Wisconsin
A new report from the New America Foundation finds that many colleges offer generous merit scholarships to students with good grades or test scores, while charging relatively high prices to the students from low-income families. This practice originated at private colleges, but is now spreading to public universities too… colleges can both serve an economically diverse swath of students and maintain their selectivity and prestige. The University of California system’s nine campuses are an unparalleled engine of social mobility — and many also rank among the best universities in the United States… Vassar’s efforts to make its student body more economically diverse are impressive, but UC campuses work at a scale that a small liberal arts college just can’t match. No other prestigious universities in the United States enroll so many students from low-income families. Few even come close. This isn’t a miracle; it’s the result of deliberate choices.
Read full article [here].
by Libby Nelson, Vox.