The world of college costs is notoriously opaque, making it difficult for students and families to find a school that’s a financial fit.
A list released this month by the Princeton Review aims to add some transparency to that conversation by highlighting colleges with high price tags offering surprisingly large financial-aid packages. The annual list, dubbed the “Top 10 Colleges for Financial Aid,” is based on information collected by the Princeton Review from students on their financial-aid packages over three years and supplemented with other data.
While many of the schools on the list offer average scholarships and grants topping $40,000, that generosity belies a crucial detail: these schools educate a small share of the low-income college student population. At all but one of the so-called top five colleges for financial aid, the share of students who receive Pell grants or the money the federal government offers to low-income students is at 15% or below.
Many of the wealthy elite schools that tend to offer generous financial-aid packages “don’t have strong track records of serving large numbers of students who need financial aid the most,” said Martin Van Der Werf, the associate director of editorial and post-secondary policy at Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce.
That’s in part because low-income high-school students often don’t have access to test prep and other resources that make them attractive candidates for top colleges. It’s also because these colleges have historically had trouble reaching and connecting with underserved students.
Over the past several years, that’s started to change. Elite colleges are taking steps to grow the share of poor students they serve, including by increasing class size and partnering with organizations to reach out to under-represented high school students.
Princeton Review Financial-Aid Ranking School Share of Pell-eligible students 1 Vanderbilt University 15% 2 Bowdoin College 14% 3 Colgate University 12% 4 Vassar College 24% 5 Washington University in St. Louis 14%The other schools on the list are also attempting to serve more low-income students. The “Opportunity Vanderbilt” program at Vanderbilt University, the school Princeton Review ranked No. 1 in financial aid, is a large component of the college’s strategy to economically diversify its student body. The initiative, launched in 2008, has multiple components: need-blind admissions, a commitment to meet full demonstrated need with gifts (instead of loans) and no income cap.
That’s helped Vanderbilt boost its share of Pell-eligible students from 8% in the incoming class of 2008 to 15% this year. It’s also helped to make Vanderbilt more affordable for students who may have demonstrated need, but are still above the income cutoff to qualify for a Pell grant, said Douglas Christiansen, the school’s dean of admissions and financial aid. For example, students from families earning between $40,000 and $59,000 received a median annual award of $66,580. More than half of Vanderbilt’s incoming class this year have demonstrated need, Christiansen said.
Vassar College, the only college on the Princeton Review list with a share of Pell-eligible students approaching one-quarter, has been a leader in these efforts, dramatically increasing the share of Pell grant recipients and students of color at the school over the past several years. The school even won a $1 million prize from an organization focused on equity in higher education in 2015 for its efforts.
The other schools on the list are also attempting to serve more low-income students. The “Opportunity Vanderbilt” program at Vanderbilt University, the school Princeton Review ranked No. 1 in financial aid, is a large component of the college’s strategy to economically diversify its student body. The initiative, launched in 2008, has multiple components: need-blind admissions, a commitment to meet full demonstrated need with gifts (instead of loans) and no income cap.
That’s helped Vanderbilt boost its share of Pell-eligible students from 8% in the incoming class of 2008 to 15% this year. It’s also helped to make Vanderbilt more affordable for students who may have demonstrated need, but are still above the income cutoff to qualify for a Pell grant, said Douglas Christiansen, the school’s dean of admissions and financial aid. For example, students from families earning between $40,000 and $59,000 received a median annual award of $66,580. More than half of Vanderbilt’s incoming class this year have demonstrated need, Christiansen said.
The school is also working to increase the share of low- and moderate-income students attending Vanderbilt in other ways. They include requiring admissions officers to make one weekly visit to at least one high school serving low-income students when they’re out on recruiting trips and to work with community-based organizations to help reach students early in their high school careers who may otherwise think they can’t afford Vanderbilt.
“It is a strategic goal of Vanderbilt University to increase our low-income students,” Christensen said. “We firmly believe it’s rooted in our academic mission.”
Over the past few years, Washington University in St. Louis, another school on the list, doubled the amount of Pell-eligible students it serves, thanks in part to a more than $500 million commitment to financial aid, Susan Killenberg McGinn, a university spokeswoman, wrote in an email. Just 6% of Washington University’s first-year students were eligible for Pell grants during the 2013-2014 academic year. That number is up to 14% this academic year. “While we are encouraged by our progress-to-date, we remain dedicated to increasing that percentage even further,” Killenberg McGinn wrote.
At Colgate University, another school on the list, 41% of students in this year’s incoming class receive financial aid, with an average award of $54,000, officials said. “Colgate is working diligently to increase applications from high-achieving students with low-income backgrounds, notably through close partnerships with community-based organizations, and by providing travel assistance for students and their families to attend various visit programs,” Drew Riley, Colgate’s associate dean of admission, wrote in an email.
And at Bowdoin, officials have had a policy of not including loans in financial-aid packages since 2008. These and other efforts help the school graduate 95% of the Pell grant recipients who attend.
“I believe that these schools have put a real commitment to making their schools affordable, attainable,” said Robert Franek, the editor-in-chief of the Princeton Review.
Despite these steps forward, the yeoman’s work of educating the nation’s poor students still falls to regional public colleges, which have fewer resources than the elite wealthy colleges that typically make most generous scholarship lists. That means they’re often spending less money per-student, making it more difficult to provide amenities like robust advising that can help get students through college to graduation. This dynamic is one of many that’s created a two-tiered higher education system.
“If I’m a really rich school and I don’t take that many poor kids, I can afford to be really generous with financial aid, but is that really serving a lot of students? The answer is no,” Van Der Werf said.
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