Since most kids don’t understand what holistic means, it’s hard to find the marketing value, imo.
Don’t forget that the number of lowest SES Harvard applicants outside eastern MA (and a few other areas) is comparatively much smaller than middle class and above kids.
And take into consideration what adcom goals for the class really are, what holistic really means. Just checking matric stats is only a slice.
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The lowest income students get a disproportionately large amount of Pell grant money, because they get the full Pell grant amount (now $5,775). But those from middle income families who get $500 or otherwise small Pell grants still count as Pell grant recipients, even though they get a disproportionately small amount of Pell grant money (family of 4 in California with 1 in college and parental income of $65,000 gets a $626 Pell grant, according to https://fafsa.ed.gov/FAFSA/app/f4cForm ).
“Don’t forget that the number of lowest SES Harvard applicants outside eastern MA (and a few other areas) is comparatively much smaller than middle class and above kids.”
Citation? I’m not being a smartass, but if you know of a source for this kind of info, I’d be interested.
Hardly any information about the applicant pool is released by any private schools (hell, Harvard won’t even release the number of fee waivers it hands out) - this is the main reason you have to largely rely on the released freshman stats if you are looking at any of these issues, because that’s really all there is to go on.
Back a few years ago, when everyone was making a big deal out of “under-matching,” there was some aggregated data released that does indicate that low income kids apply to selective schools at lower rates than high income kids - that is certainly part of the reason that the multiplier above is so high.
However, the disparity between the 1% and the “middle class” kids is also shocking high, so low income kids just not applying isn’t the whole story here.
I think it’s useful to also look at endowment by student rather than total endowment, in considering financial aid and SES of enrolled students.