<p>As a rule, at top schools they DO meet the norm. In fact, the Winston study found four times as many low-income students meeting the norm as were in fact attending. (Whether they actually applied, and how the admissions departments looked at them is another question entirely. When Princeton and then Amherst decided to increase their number of low-income students by about 50%, it had absolutely no impact on the median test scores averages for the entire school, suggesting they were in the pile of applicants all along, and needed absolutely nothing in the way of “help” to get in (other than a nod from the school presidents that they wanted more low-income students.)</p>