A Fair Path to College

asteriskea
Wed, 09 May 2007 04:58:43 +0000

Nina Marks, president of Collegiate Directions, calls for a greater commitment to close the education gap in a college admissions process that is increasingly skewed against low-income and first-generation-to-college students.



Today low-income students are increasingly at risk of being lost in the admissions avalanche. The volume of applications nationwide has risen dramatically as more students apply to more schools. This trend is driven in part by heightened admissions uncertainty. But even selective and sought-after colleges have not discouraged bigger applicant pools, partly because U.S. News & World Report’s annual college rankings reward a higher ratio of applications to acceptances…

…wealthier and better-connected students typically are given tailored attention and support at home and in school. Once they matriculate, these students have much better chances than their low-income peers of fitting in socially and academically, which increases their chances of graduating…

Harvard, Princeton and U-Va. were rightly concerned about leveling the admissions playing field, but only a handful of applicants will benefit from their elimination of early admissions. Their action will make a real difference only if it stimulates analysis of the priorities and pressures that influence not just whether students get into college but whether they thrive there and graduate. To make this happen, especially for low-income students, we need to focus more broadly, before and after college admissions, and more personally, on better funding and advising. Only then can we find solutions for the inequities in the entire process.