Fewer Low-Income Students Attending Yale

By KIM MARTINEAU

Hartford Courant

January 21, 2008

The number of low-income students at Yale is declining, a new study shows, even as Harvard and some top-ranked public institutions, including the University of Connecticut, have made gains in admitting more students from the bottom of the economic ladder.

As income inequality grows, prestigious schools across the country are scrambling to become less elitist and admit more low-income students, especially as their multibillion-dollar endowments climb to record highs.

In recent years, Harvard and Yale universities, and others, have boosted financial aid and expanded recruiting to draw more students of modest means.

A study by Iowa scholar Tom Mortenson indicates mixed results. Many of the universities rated 'best' by U.S. News and World Report showed a declining enrollment of students with federal Pell grants - need-based grants to promote access to postsecondary education.

Most students who receive Pell grants come from families making less than $40,000 a year - just under the median household income of $48,000.

His study shows that Harvard increased its number of Pell students by 53 percent in the past decade, while Yale saw a decline of 14 percent. A recent study by The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education puts Harvard's percentage of Pell students at 12 percent, and Yale's at 9 percent. 'Yale seems to think its mission is to create presidents of the United States,' said Mortenson, a longtime advocate of opportunity in higher education. 'The contrast between Harvard and Yale is just night and day. Somebody gets it, and somebody doesn't.' Yale said Pell data are not the best way to measure its progress in improving class diversity because foreign students, for one, don't qualify.

Jeffrey Brenzel, dean of admissions, said 15 percent of this year's freshman class comes from families making less than $60,000 a year, a 10 percent increase from the year before.

'We hope and expect to continue on the same path,' he said. More low-income students than ever are going to college, Mortenson said, but their numbers are concentrated at low-prestige schools. The number of Pell students rose 37 percent nationally in the past seven years, but by just 9 percent at the 'best' national universities.

Schools that raised their Pell numbers the most were mainly lower-cost state institutions. Arizona State University and three campuses in the University of California system made the 'Top 10,' with UConn close behind. Although just 15 percent of students at UConn receive Pell grants, according to an earlier study, enrollments grew by 28 percent.

'This is not by accident; this is by design,' said Dolan Evanovich, head of enrollment management. 'We've pushed very hard to diversify racially, geographically and by income.'

Harvard is just starting to see results from a 2004 initiative that made college free for families making less than $40,000 a year. Since then, recruiting has also been expanded, to 120 cities.

'These are very exciting, very talented students,' said Bill Fitzsimmons, dean of admissions, who attended Harvard on scholarship over the objections of the nuns at his Catholic high school.

Students from poor families still face a disadvantage in the application process because elite schools focus heavily on SAT scores despite the strong correlation between test scores and income. Such students often lack the benefit of college-educated parents and the rigorous academic preparation that wealthy school districts provide.

'The deck is clearly stacked against kids from lower socioeconomic backgrounds,' Fitzsimmons acknowledged.

The unprecedented growth in college endowments has caused members of Congress to look more critically at rising tuition costs at elite schools and the scarcity of low-income students. Last fall, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley threatened to require big-endowment schools to pay out 5 percent of their endowments each year, as private foundations are required to do. In a recent study, The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education found that the percentage of low-income students has declined at most of the 10 richest schools since 1983.

Only Emory University, with a 12 percent share of Pell students, and Stanford University, with a 13 percent share, saw modest gains. Columbia University, with a 15 percent share, still leads the Ivy League in income diversity, although its percentage of Pell students has fallen from 29 percent in 1983, the study found. 'They're offering great financial aid, particularly for low-income families,' editor Bruce Slater said of the elite schools. 'But they've done nothing whatsoever for increasing the chance of these kids being accepted.' Contact Kim Martineau at kmartineau@courant.com .

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