Wealth and College Admissions

Today’s Boston Globe has an article about a subject I reported on earlier.  With the economy in tatters and the stock market plunging, college endowments have taken a serious hit at just the time when families are in need of greater financial assistance.  This is placing a great deal of pressure on even the wealthiest insitution’s financial aid budgets. 

While most colleges have publicly stated that financial aid continues to be held sacrosanct, the reality is that many schools are facing tough budgetary choices.  Middlebury College recently announced that even financial aid is on the table as it looks to make budget cuts. 

Full-pay students are going to look increasingly attractive to many schools struggling to balance the books.  With most schools being need aware at least at the margins, it will be easier for wealthy students to gain admission to the school of their choice, while high-need students will face one more obstacle to economic and social mobility.

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It’s an Especially Good Year to Be a Wealthy High School Senior

How the Credit Crisis Will Make it Easier for Rich Kids to Get Into Their College of Choice

You may have heard that a male student interested in the humanities has a better chance of being accepted to a prestigious liberal arts college than a comparably qualified female candidate. How about the tale of the gifted athlete with sub-par grades who gets a full-ride to “State” on a football scholarship; everyone tells that story. Have you heard the one about the rich kid from the Upper West Side who gets in because his family is wealthy? This isn’t the kid whose family’s name is plastered all over the football stadium, dining hall, and library; he’s just your everyday, average, wealthy student who doesn’t need financial aid. The sad reality is that all but a select few of this country’s institutions of higher education take a student’s ability to pay into consideration when making an admissions decision.The economic realities of college admissions run deeper and darker than most people know.