Low-Income + High-Performing = Community College?

Last week, the New York Times reported on a new nationwide study that found that most high-achieving low-income students do not even apply to the nation's most selective colleges. In the study, "high-achieving" is defined as a student with at least an A- average and a score in the top 10% of students who took the ACT or SAT.

The study cites a lack of knowledge and misperceptions about the actual cost of attending a selective, out-of-state university as the major impediments to these students. It also emphasizes that graduation rates  and career choices for low-income students in selective colleges are much higher, due to better resources and support. Thinking back to my time at a selective college, I can see how the supports in place definitely helped students who were struggling in a new environment. From caring first-year deans who regularly hosted meals at their homes to free tutoring and career counseling, all kinds of support were readily available and many students took advantage of it. According to the article, the community colleges and local institutions attended by many low-income students have more of a sink-or-swim environment. The ticket price is substantially lower, but support programs are thin or nonexistent.

This article provides a stark contrast to a related article from December: "For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall." This story followed three low-income students who succeeded, in varying degrees, in getting out of their hard-luck town. All three ended up dropping out, even the one who headed to Emory University. In this article, all three students were held back by strong ties to people they'd left behind (families and boyfriends) as well as financial hardship. In their community there was a sense that students who "got out" were abandoning the people back home, creating a burden of guilt for those attending college. The student who attended Emory had a lot of financial aid, but she was overwhelmed by the paperwork and ended up losing her aid due to some errors on her FAFSA and missed deadlines. Forced to take on multiple jobs to pay her tuition, she ended up failing out with crippling debt. For this one student, attending a selective college wasn't enough. Clearly, the support systems did not help her. Although the statistics do show more success for low-income students at selective colleges, the question remains how those institutions can continue to attract -- and retain -- those students.

Lastly, I thought it was important to note that in this study, the group of students nationwide identified as "high-achieving, low-income" was 6% black, 8% Latino, 15% Asian-American, and 69% white. The clear racial gaps in this subset of poor, academically talented students was not a focus of the study, but certainly relevant to our work in Baltimore.

Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/education/scholarly-poor-often-overlook-better-colleges.html?ref=education&_r=0

For Poor, Leap to College Often Ends in a Hard Fall

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/23/education/poor-students-struggle-as-class-plays-a-greater-role-in-success.html