Admissions & Student Aid

The Chronicle of Higher Education , February 25, 2005

Hats off to college admissions for processing a huge and growing number of applications quickly and efficiently (increasingly, using the Internet), while at the same time watching for the distinct qualities particular applicants have to offer. It's a remarkable triumph of good organization and management. No other nation does it on this scale, or does it better.

As impressive is the determination of many colleges to reach out to poor and minority applicants -- working with high schools in disadvantaged areas to find promising candidates and to provide programs to help get those students ready for college, and using multiple admissions criteria to avoid constitutional strictures against race-based quotas.

With college tuitions rising faster than the rate of inflation, and the erosion of Pell Grants (which covered 80 percent of total costs at public four-year colleges a quarter-century ago and only about 40 percent now), an estimated 25 percent of low-income students who have the grades and test scores to qualify for college do not apply. That is a national disgrace. The gap between rich and poor in America already is wider than it's been in more than a century, and a college degree is more essential to upward mobility than ever before. Our colleges are precious national resources; a major criterion for admission should be which applicant can make the most of those resources.

It makes no sense for admissions offices to favor the children of rich or influential families. Even if such "development admits" do bring in gifts and donations, they're morally and socially wrong. Almost as questionable is the practice of favoring sons and daughters, or other relatives, of alumni. Yes, loyal alumni are sometimes worth their weight in gold. But loyalty shouldn't be earned or maintained by bribes. For much the same reason, admissions offices should stop shifting so much scholarship aid to students who don't need it but merely have high SAT scores. Sure, merit aid can improve the "profiles" of entering classes, but that's no justification.

In addition, those who rank colleges (attention: U.S News & World Report!) should consider the economic diversity of entering classes -- with some points based on the percentage of the class whose family income is below the median, and extra points for students in the lowest 20 percent.