Low Income Students Not Applying to Select Colleges
ROMANS: The Supreme Court is expected to make a decision soon in an affirmative action case. They court could outlaw any consideration of race in college omissions. Opponents of affirmative action say colleges should focus on a different kind of diversity, income diversity. And 70 percent of students at elite colleges come from the top income quartile. Those are top earning families with all the spots, 70 percent of the spots at top earning schools. They outnumber low income classmates 14 to one. So why aren't the low income students getting into the best schools? It turns out they're simply not applying.</s>LORIZBETH GUZMAN, DROPPED OUT OF COLLEGE: I grew up in Washington heights.</s>ROMANS: Lorizbeth Guzman didn't grow up with much, but she always excelled in school.</s>GUZMAN: My SAT scores were around the 1400s.</s>ROMANS: But her small high school in the Bronx had limited resources.</s>GUZMAN: We only had one school come and visit which was Mercy College. Everybody in my class applied, and almost every got accepted. We're like, all right, we have never heard of this school, but if they're all accepting us, why not?</s>ROMANS: According to a new study from the Brookings Institution, only 34 percent of top low income students apply to the country's most selective colleges. That's compared with 78 percent of top high income student. The college wasn't the right fit. After the second semester she dropped out.</s>GUZMAN: I wanted to go back a few months after I left Mercy. But everything happens and I was working full time and I got pregnant.</s>CAROLINE HOXBY, PROFESSOR, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Low income, high achieving students thrive at very selective colleges and universities once they get there, whereas if they attend a non-selective postsecondary institution that they tend to apply to, they have about a 50 percent chance of graduating on time.</s>ROMANS: Meanwhile, she is still paying off her loans. She says she didn't have enough information to make the best choice.</s>GUZMAN: I heard about scholarships and opportunities you can get and I would research, but there are so many out there. So I never knew which would fit me.</s>HOXBY: For very high achieving low income students, the more selective the college or university they attend, the less they will pay.</s>ROMANS: A lot less. The most competitive colleges have more resources and can offer more scholarships, so low income students usually don't come even close to paying that scary sticker price.</s>FAUSTO JIMENEZ, COLLEGE GRADUATE: I understood that I needed to go to school for free because my parents would not be able to afford it.</s>ROMANS: Fausto Jimenez grew up in Harlem.</s>JIMENEZ: There were often shootouts while we were walking down the street. There was actually a drug factory essentially right across the hall from my apartment.</s>ROMANS: He always dreamed of going to Columbia University.</s>JIMENEZ: I remember saying I want to be here. I want to come to Columbia. I think my mom chuckled at the time.</s>ROMANS: Thanks to the Gates Millennium scholars program he was able to get that Ivy League education for free.</s>JIMENEZ: I don't have loans. All I had to do was concentrate on my studies.</s>HOXBY: It is important to apply to some of the most selective colleges you can get into if you are a low income, high achieving student. Narrow in on a set of colleges and apply to several. If are you a low income student, you can get application fee waivers, so you should not have to play application fees.</s>JIMENEZ: Attending Columbia has been a transformative experience in my life. I may still live in Harlem but I know I now understand Harlem a lot better.</s>ROMANS: Fausto is giving back to his community. He works for a New York City organization helping kids get into top schools like he did, and Laura Beth is planning to head back to school in the fall to make a better future for her young daughter. This time around she is applying for lots of scholarships. Thanks for joining the conversation this week on YOUR MONEY. We're here every Saturday 2:00 p.m. eastern and Sunday at 3:00. Until then you can find me on Facebook and Twitter. My handle is @ChristineRomans.