Still, there is enough individual variation that automatically assuming that the kids of poor and lower middle income families are not college ready and therefore unsuitable for admission to college means wasting an enormous amount of potential talent, as well as sending the message that there is no possibility of moving upward in SES – a recipe for various social and political nastiness in society.
Surely, many readers here know of cases where someone from a poor or lower middle income family goes to college, graduates on time, and gets a good job, while a peer or cousin or whatever from a wealthier family struggles in college, barely graduates after six or more years (or does not graduate), and gets a job only through family connections.