https://www.wsj.com/articles/princeton-others-aim-to-accept-more-low-income-students-1519900203
“30 elite colleges banded together with a goal of enrolling an additional 50,000 low- and moderate-income students at top institutions by 2025…”
I don’t know how they define low and moderate income, but I imagine with the US medium family income at $60k the level to qualify cannot be too far from that figure. And many families on this forum probably won’t benefit from such programs. I wonder if the freshmen class numbers are going to be kept the same at 30 elite schools with 50000 slots now going to low/moderate income families. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.
Keep an eye on the percentage of students with Pell grants, which is a reasonable proxy for lower income and lower half of middle income.
At elite colleges, it means income up to 75k although they probably mean, increase the number of Pell Grant students.
@jzducol Article says Pell + a few higher income. But
Also,
Re: “Presidents warn that middle-income students, for whom tuition is still a burden, can grow resentful if they see their own payments covering costs for their classmates”
Perhaps they mean the “middle class that does not get financial aid” (i.e. from the top 3% or so, excluding the top 0.5%) that is well represented on these forums, rather than the actual “middle-income” that gets substantial financial aid from the well-endowed private colleges (i.e. upper Pell range and slightly above, not six figure incomes), if they manage to get admitted.
Re: Princeton
Seems like a similar approach that Stanford takes with transfer students.
^ and Amherst has, for years. Taking CC transfers is a great way to get smart lower income kids who have proven themselves academically. It also gets more military veterans (also a priority for Amherst, not sure about P-ton).