@MYOS1634 - I suspect each public university system will have their own definition of “affordable” or maybe that’s just an adjective used in the press release and not an actual requirement. Sadly, I don’t think the existence of the coalition or offer of membership will entice “elite public” schools to offer better financial aid. To be blunt, taxpayers and state politicians will see the equation as Coalition membership and higher taxes versus no Coalition and current (lower?) state subsidy to public universities, no higher taxes - I’m willing to bet they pick no higher taxes. I think most people believe their states still subsidize public universities to a much larger extent.
Looking at Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth System (the one with PSU, Temple, Pitt and Lincoln) system boggles my mind. They get less than 10% (?! - is that right?) from the state. OTOH, Pitt and PSU have quite the endowment for a quasi-pubilc university. They both already belong to the coalition so there’s no incentive to give more financial aid. Temple fails the graduation rate test.
There are one heck of a lot of poor kids or middle income kids who find CC and get advice here that is superior to what’s “on offer” at their high schools. So,I am optimistic enough to believe that some of them will find College Access too. Plus, there are many teachers and GCs who would like to help outstanding students with big dream but don’t know enough to do so. I think they are even more likely to find the site.
To use one example, there are many talented artists out there who find out at the last minute that they can submit an arts supplement. Some of these kids may attend high schools which don’t offer more than one year of art. They may scramble to put a portfolio together. If they knew a few years in advance that they can do it they wouldn’t be running around at the last second trying to figure out how to photograph works and upload them. They’d find out about things like National Portfolio Day. They might get lucky and get a mentor through this program that can give them real guidance–maybe even get them to apply and get fin aid to some summer art programs.
Even if our young artist doesn’t find this site, maybe his/her guidance counselor will and let the student know early on in the process that (s)he can submit artwork.
At the very least, the site will tell kids which schools meet full need. It often takes a lot of hunting on the web to figure that out. Kids can now figure out what the admissions requirements of those schools are. i think there are kids who don’t realize that meeting the requirements for high school graduation isn’t enough to apply to some colleges. They may find out earlier in the process that they need, e.g., 3 years of foreign language, to apply to many colleges. That could lead them to take the extra courses they need to have a realistic chance.
So lets not condemn this. At least give it a “shot.”
One piece I’m waiting for, jonri, is how this reaches the community mentors and the fine opportunity programs for promising lower SES kids. Are they somehow in the loop? There’s a lot more of this pre-college support, running back to 8th or 9th, in some cases, than many realize. But it’s far from enough. And some operate on their own in their communities, aren’t national.
The UC system has been going their own way on applications for decades. It is extremely unlikely that the UC system has any desire to join this coalition, since its application process is designed to minimize the number of things that can trip up students from low SES families or who are enrolled in low performing schools where counselors and teachers rarely see anyone aspiring beyond the local community college. For example:
Counselor report not required or considered.
Recommendations not required. Proposals to have greater use of optional recommendations at Berkeley have run into criticism for being disadvantageous to applicants from low SES families. Currently, they are not considered except at Berkeley, where some borderline applicants may be asked to submit optional ones.
SAT subject tests not required. Mostly not considered, except for some majors at some campuses (e.g. engineering majors asking for optional submission of math and science ones).
CSS Profile not required (only FAFSA needed for financial aid application).
Transcripts not required (courses and grades self-reported; verified on matriculation with final transcript).
However, that is probably the same subset of poor kids who currently find enough information and support to apply to the highly selective private schools.
Better for students to use the net price calculators to see what financial aid may look like. Of course, they need to take special care with situations like divorced parents (need to include all income and assets from both parents and any new spouses unless the school specifically excludes the non-custodial parent) and parental small business, real estate, self employment, etc. income (need to add back any deductions, using revenue instead of income).
However, the actual enrollment at most of the elites includes relatively few students from the middle to low income range families (as proxied by Pell grants):
Note that the US News description of Pell grants (“most often given to undergrads with family incomes of less than $20,000”) is kind of misleading; tests with https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm indicate that Pell grants are available up to incomes closer to the median household income in the US (although the maximum amount of Pell grant is only offered to the lower income range). Keep in mind that most elites have about half no-financial-aid students, meaning from top 2-3% income or wealth families.