“Missing on top campuses: the poor”
From an article in the Seattle Times:
Only 3 percent of the freshmen at the 146 most selective colleges and universities come from families in the bottom quarter of Americans ranked by income. [link via Kairosnews]
That’s a bleak statistic at first glance, but I can’t help wonder what the result of this is. The criteria they used to pick the 146 universities is “most selective,” but I expect that correlates well to “most expensive.”
What would be really interesting is to compare the post-college success of the students from the families in the bottom quarter of income who went to those exclusive schools to those from the same income group who attended less exclusive schools and those who didn’t attend college (probably controlling for those who go on to graduate schools).
I suspect that what one might find is that while college is still a significant indicator of your long-term success, your undergraduate institution probably isn’t a great predictor of that success.
(Of course, I’m sure someone way smarter than me has already thought of this and done that study. I just haven’t seen it.)