<p>^^ I agree, there is a significant cost to recruiting high performing/low SES students. It usually takes a combination of outreach programs and need based scholarships. You can find the high academic/low SES students, but if the school is too expensive (OOS tuition is $40K a year…ouch), they will not go to Michigan. I bet the schools Yield % is fairly poor for low SES students (something much less than Michigan’s normal 40% yield). Even if the school meets “need” for in-state students, that still may not be enough for low SES students. These high performing students are likely getting merit and need based scholarships at other universities/colleges. </p>
<p>Of course, if the school could use affirmative action, they could avoid a lot of the cost as they could then target lower performing students. However, this can only take you so far (as you would be targeting lower performing URMs that are high SES students; this was UT-Austin’s reason for using AA, btw), at some point you have to provide need based aid to get these students to enroll. </p>
<p>I don’t think you can achieve cultural diversity targeting high SES students. In general, within the USA, high SES students tend to share a similar culture. Either way, “diversity” advocates are only concerned with race or SES status, no one is taking “physical action!” to get more students from foreign countries. </p>