<p>I agree that lower-income kids are at a disadvantage. I should have made that a point. </p>
<p>But I struggle to see why colleges should care (in the context of admissions; top universities, with all their money, should be doing a little more philanthropy in inner-cities). Affirmative action, in effect for over 40 years now, has done very little to change the achievement gap. As a recent study showed, the gap in passage rate for the bar exam between whites and blacks has actually swelled, in spite of the increased presence of African-Americans at top schools. Taking kids that would do well at a top 25 school like Georgetown and elevating them to a Harvard by virtue of income or race in spite of their demonstrated academic inadequacies helps nobody. As shown in that study (which was posted on CC, I’ll try to find it), many low-income or minority students (who we assume would have lower SAT scores) simply can’t keep up with the curriculum and end up not learning.</p>
<p>I don’t know how the income issue is addressed, because while there is an advantage for more affluent students, it must be questioned whether the best way to address this is to admit less affluent students that are not qualified.</p>