
Study: Low-income students still unlikely to
attend selective colleges
Rese
archers
Anthony C
arnev
ale
and Stephen J.
Rose rocked the
ac
ademic world in 2004 with their l
andm
ark study th
at showed students from the lowest socioeconomic qu
artile were 25 times less likely to enroll in the most selective colleges th
an their we
althier counterp
arts. In response to those findings, sever
al highly respected universities ch
anged both their
admissions
and fin
anci
al
aid policies in order to
attr
act more low-income
applic
ants. Public policy supported those ef
forts by m
aking more feder
al
and st
ate fin
anci
al
aid
av
ail
able to low-income students.
But
a new
an
alysis by C
arnev
ale, co-
authored with Jeff Strohl, shows th
at despite these ef
forts, soci
al, ethnic
and r
aci
al str
atific
ation rem
ains high. Their l
atest findings, published in the new book Rew
arding Strivers: Helping Low-Income Students Succeed in College, suggest th
at even more str
atific
ation h
as resulted from higher
admissions st
and
ards put in pl
ace recently
at selective universities. These st
and
ards
are rooted he
avily in st
and
ardized test scores, st
acking the deck
ag
ainst minority
and low-income students who h
ave historic
ally scored low on tests such
as the S
AT
and
ACT.