I think they are doing this in a back door way. Trinity is well known to pricey private schools as a choice for some of their underperforming students. The linked article makes that clear. Great distaste on part of admissions and faculty about this market, but it pays the bills. Also a lot of these sludgey students do grow up in time. They are often smart kids who are just lazy or unmotivated to do school work. That they are so privileged makes this a stereotypical privileged spoiled trust fund kid that leaves a bad taste in the mouths of those who have had to work hard and scrape the financial barrels, watching their parents do the same. Many test very well, in part due to heavy duty tutoring, but really, I’ve met a lot of these kids, and they are smart and capable for the most part. Also Undisciplined and uninterested in academics. They also have facility with rigorous academics because they’ve been exposed to it, often having it pounded into their brains for their entire lives.
I have no problem with a school taking a number of those kids. A trademark of theirs is a combo of high test scores and low grades. They do tend to graduate college, their test scores are often a boost to colleges and their grades and they can be made up by those many many kids with high grades and lower test scores. They bring in the money Often in many areas, full tuition, development, parental support and donations throughout the years, legacy, and future donations.
I look at my kids’ independent school that lists alumni giving and, yeah, even 15 -20 years out, it’s the well to do kids donating. Not the kids from the ABC , Prep for Prep and other scholarship programs. Those kids are still paying back student loans from college, maybe helping out family even while trying to make upscale lived for themselves.
So, yeah, Trinity and like schools have to take a deep breath and take a dose of those kids, and faculty might want to put forth efforts in getting more of them to engage academically because a lot of them will be in positions of power and wealth. They should do that in tandem with working to get optimal graduation rates from high financial need kids that may not have had the academic prep and background of the “brats”.
The all important US News ranking do Reward those efforts. You need high test scores, you need low income kids succeeding, you need good graduation rates.
Trinity only gives less than 1% of their kids merit money even as the meet full need to those that they accept. They are not need blind in admissions. I think they might want to look at schools like Ursinus, St Lawrence, Wash & Lee to buy some top students wanting a good LAC, a small school, can’t pay for it even with s high EFC. Maybe enter that niche market of kids of divorce who have an uncooperative NCP like Vanderbilt and Chicago have.
A of families who can afford to pay full price are not interested in schools that are focusing on Lower SES students. They want their kids going to schools where the students are either top performers academically or come from supportive (wealthy even better ) family background. They want fellow with prospects to lift up their own kids prospects. A reason often cited for the clamor for highly selective schools is the quality of the student body. Those with low SES have the academic prowess to succeed as do many of the students. It makes a huge difference.
Trinity still has a bit of this luster but it is getting tarnished. They need to work on this as repugnant as it may be to idealistic faculty and Admissions officers.