Underprivileged Admission Standards

Many middle to lower class families cannot afford to send their kids to school and with Ivy League schools like Harvard and Princeton giving out generous financial packages to their student, who mostly come from wealthy background. The poorer students are on the losing end because they are not given the opportunity for aid. As Terry Hartle, the senior vice president of the American Council of Education, says, "Smart poor kids go to college at the same rate as stupid rich kids." What this is saying is that the wealthy families have vastly more opportunity to succeed in the college system even though they have equal or lesser smarts. Well respected schools such as NYU are now admitting students based on the financial fit not by merit.

Unfortunately, these children cannot complete their education because they have to travel with their family and learn to manage at a young age a life of hard labor. This however does not diminish their dreams of completing high school and some day attending a university so that they will not have to live the life of struggle their parents did to sustain the household. In cities like Detroit, MI there is a large population of low income Hispanic and African American families. The public school system unfortunately cannot potentially promote a high-quality education. The majority of these students do not receive an entrance level education simply because of living standards. Income plays an important role in education opportunities regarding the quality education each student can pertain. Since the minorities in that area are low-income they cannot afford to attend a private high school that can better prepare them for college. According to a research done at the University of Texas-Pan American, “certain racial or ethnicity factors should play a role in the admissions decision.” (Marklein)

College tuition has skyrocketed over the past decades making the pathway to college less accessible to low-income families. According to the

This led me to a few inquiry questions: When looking at higher education, can it be viewed that students of wealthier backgrounds are still favored over those from poverty stricken areas because of the importance place on GPA and things such as the SAT when it comes to the admission selection process? What are the stigmas that high school students from lower income neighbors often face in regards to higher education? Fact factors cause students from lower income backgrounds to not graduate for university?I plan to study and the impact that poverty has on the college process for a student so that I can find out why less minority students apply, enroll, and graduate from universities and colleges so that I might better understand if whether or not poverty has an impact on a student enrolling and succeeding through higher

Since urban areas, and subsequently urban high schools, have a high population of low-income residents, it is important to explore how this aspect of their social status has affected these individuals historically. According to Mantsios (2006) a majority of the United States (60 percent) hold less than 6 percent of the wealth. What is more, one in eight people live below the federal poverty level Mantsios (2006). This is important, because class level is strongly correlated with educational outcomes and success, which can be explained by class domination Mantsios (2006). Essentially, people who are born into wealthy families versus poor families have more opportunities provided to them on the basis of their class status or familial connections Mantsios (2006). Take for instance the example Schmidt (2007) given of white students with mediocre grades getting into Ivy League

The fight for Civil Rights in the United States has had a long history of influencing college admissions decisions, especially at selective colleges and universities. Considering a large racial preference in college admissions in the decades immediately following the Civil Rights Act was acknowledged as important to remedying more than two centuries of racial discrimination. In today’s world, it is generally accepted that having racially and ethnically diverse college campuses is desirable, but the question is how to achieve that objective fairly. Because attaining a college degree is a crucial element in achieving economic mobility, the time has come for class-based preference to become the accepted way to ensure that America’s colleges are lending opportunity to our most vulnerable citizens.

The educational institution has become the primary determinant of social class, explains Professor Roy in his lecture on education in modern society. As American society puts such high value on education, there is a greater need for individuals to achieve associate, bachelor and master degrees (Pace). The path to reaching these degrees is different for each person, but the initial step if one wants to attain them remains the same: graduating high school. In his book Savage Inequalities, Jonathan Kozol found that not every high school is on the same playing field (Kozol 267). While the divide centered on financial wellbeing, there was a strong correlation to the race of the student populations at each school (Kozol 264-265).

Berg, Gary A. “Low-income Students and the Perpetuation of Inequality.” Higher Education in America. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate Pub., 2010. Print. This source is scholarly and I found it outside of class using the online Chattanooga State databases. This publication discusses how higher education is significantly harder for low income students. There are many types of disadvantages in school that Berg suggests. From racial inequality, gender, single parents, to crime and drugs in the household. Unfortunately, most of the things that Berg lists, all groups have one distinct thing in common; and that is Income Inequality (96). It’s not

White, upper-class students tend to receive greater support from parents and have access to more resources. Therefore, merit-based awards will favor upper-class students and limit access to higher education for students of low socioeconomic status. At the same time, while merit-based aid is an effective way to reward a student’s effort and dedication to his or her academics, merit-based aid is increasingly being awarded to students who most likely do not need it, and whose access to higher education would not be limited if they did not receive such aid. On the other hand, for low-income students, financial aid is the most significant factor in determining whether to attend college, since they may not be able to afford the rising cost of tuition without financial assistance from the institution. This further disproves the argument that merit-based aid is race-neutral, given that more high-achieving students are from a white, upper class background, and have perhaps had the privilege of being able to attend private school or schools in better school districts, have likely received more support from parents, especially those who attended college, and have had greater access to dual-enrollment and college preparatory courses.

Out of ten low-income students, one will enroll into college. Out of fifty low-income students, one will graduate from high school. From these facts, the number of low-income students of going to college is declining. The question we should be asking is why. From the New York Times, there is an article called ‘The Diploma Divide’, which addresses the issue of why there is a high percentage of low-income American students not getting their bachelor’s degrees. ‘The Diploma Divide’ does a marvelous job making its claim about the low-income degree gap growing because of the costs of attending a university, changes in family structures, and living in poverty segregated neighborhoods.

These expensive cities, such as Washington, D.C. and New York, appealing to what Lind calls in “Intellectuals Are Freaks”, “bohemian rich kids”, (Lind 2) and limiting opportunities for intellectual growth in other locations where money isn’t as plenty. Students that come from a lower socioeconomic status tend to encounter a wall of resistance that may prevent them from applying to colleges they feel incapable of attending and succeeding at, due to the fear of inferiority that arises from already being at a set disadvantage compared to students of the upper-class society. Studies (“Why Economic Disadvantage Becomes Educational Disadvantage” by Sam Fulwood III) show that only 3 percent of students from 146 of the most-selective public and private colleges are from the bottom socioeconomic quartile compared to the 67 percent of students from the top income quartile who attend these same schools. Here, the economic divide suggests a educational divide as well that weakens the education

Imagine not having to take the ACT or SAT and still getting into college. Well, Harvard has put forward the ideas of changes to their admission programs. I agree with Harvard’s proposed changes to college admissions because they are putting more emphasis on involvement with the community or family than grades on a standardized test. As the article states, “giving students clear opportunities to report their contributions to their families on their college applications … can help underprivileged students” (Stump). With these new changes requested, students don’t have to focus on studying for hours for tests when they can be helping do better activities. Although the standardized testing has been in the college admission system for years now,

Additionally, students who live in low-income areas typically attend schools with higher poverty rates; thus, those students are not as equally prepared for college. Lack of funding and resources in poorer schools prevents students from learning the advanced math, reading, science, and social skills needed to be prepared for higher education. This gap in resources provides a means for the students of provincial schools to have a further breach

It is generally known that for a million reasons which I am in no way, shape, or form qualified to talk about race has to some extent a direct correlation with poverty. According to the US Census as of 2014 about 26.2% of African Americans live below the poverty level compared to about 10.1% of White people. This of course ties into the fact that if you are currently living in poverty the odds of you succeeding in school are much lower than the average student for a myriad of reasons which might include the fact that you go to a bad school, don’t have access to extracurricular activities due to monetary deficiencies, etc. As a result of this when applying to college your options are diminished due to the fact that schools like Columbia or Yale refuse to tarnish their reputation by accepting a kid who got mediocre grades and never did debate or model

There is no denial of merit based aid due to estimated family contribution, or family income; families are eligible for merit awards regardless of which income bracket they belong. As a supplement to need-based aid, merit- aid can dramatically lessen the financial bludgeoning that college costs can incur. Furthermore, the implementation of aid based on student achievement has been a tool of encouragement. Students can receive aid for their excellence in athletics, academics, the arts, and for high scores on college entrance exams. High school students work hard to receive financial aid of this kind, many of them taking on the most rigorous coursework offered such as AP classes. Bright, high achieving students are desirable to colleges because they are seen as less likely to be a part of the retention population: students who leave college before completing a degree. The amount of offered merit based aid is a motivator that often attracts students to certain colleges and universities. Why wouldn’t we want to offer the brightest and the best the money that they desire; they reciprocate, they are a benefit to society when they graduate and become successful lawyers, doctors and educators. The problem however, is that the above benefits of merit-aid disproportionately favor middle and upper classes. Many families don’t have the money to pay for necessary utilities from month to month, and certainly not enough to even think of saving for college tuition. When