Bloomberg News reports that early admissions favors the affluent, and many of the most desirable colleges are filling up a large proportion of their freshman class early.
Janet Lorin writes:
Top colleges are filling more of their classes in early-admissions programs that favor affluent families, placing another barrier before poorer students hoping to better themselves through higher education.
Families that need financial aid often wait for the regular round, which starts this month, so they can compare aid offers. Because early-decision programs require a binding commitment to one school in November and boost admissions chances, many slots are taken before lower-income students even apply.
At Northwestern and Duke, about half the spots for this fall’s freshman class are already spoken for. Ten years ago, the universities each took about a quarter through early admissions. Vanderbilt expects its class to be as much as 44 percent full by next month, compared with a third a decade ago.
“The scale is definitely tipped to the kids who have more behind them financially,” said Bruce Poch, former dean of admissions at Pomona College in Claremont, California. The trend of colleges filling up early “has gotten more extreme in recent years.”
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a feature, not a bug. Like the colleges wouldn’t be aware that those who are already capable of paying that early and wouldn’t be contingent on third party funding would be both more affluent, and by proxy, more likely to succeed and boost their images as well.
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“Unspoken Admissions”
Wealthy Admission
Early and surely
Cementing position
Of finances purely
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The middle class is in trouble when it comes to funding for college. Loans and financial aid are much harder to get. I am clearly seeing that the elimination of the middle class is going to come through eliminating our public schools and preventing our middle class kids from getting a college education. I don’t see it talked about much…but, believe me, middle class parents are struggling big time to pay the college tuition bills.
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That’s why we must fight for public schools. They are a cornerstone of democracy. We must produce citizens that can think critically and creatively. We must work against corporate mind control. There should be no throw away citizens in a democracy. I hope African American groups wake up and realize that comprehensive, well-funded public schools are their best hope, not testing regimes. As for the middle class, they need to wake up too before they become collateral damage as well.
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I am living this nightmare right now.
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Terrible! Like the rich don’t have enough advantages!!!
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Kids from more affluent families are probabably more likely to attend schools, public and private, that are more actively engaged in the admissions process. Their families and peers are probably more focused on college admissions. But these schools and families are not the problem and should not be faulted. Nor should Duke or Northwestern.
The issue is getting less advantaged schools, families, even students engaged in the college pipeline early on. The kids who apply for early admission have been talking about or have been pushed in that direction from early on. How do we make that happen for mor kids?
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I don’t see how “getting them earlier” is going to help if they don’t have the financial backing to attend. We’re not talking chicken feed when it comes to financial aid for a 4 year purchase including a usually very minimal income on top of a demanding class schedule.
The only thing that could be DONE earlier is saving, and as we all know, wages are stagnant, good jobs are getting harder to come by, and the working class is struggling.
I don’t see how making kids “college bound” earlier will fix the financial issues for both families and students. Further, there’s an implicit assumption that a college graduate will do better when that is based on fairly old data whereas we know 50% of college grads simply are not using their degree – it gets taken as a proxy for merit for even menial jobs. Colleges will not create meaningful jobs, and they will not solve the financial crisis most American families are facing.
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M, the financial issues are huge and have to be addressed. States have got to restore funding for state institutions. All need to control costs.
But this was about early admissions, in many cases the kids who may well qualify for scholarship money, especially needs based aid. How do we avoid missing those potentially highly qualified kids from non-affluent settings who may have a chance at financial aid?
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You answered your own question then, in that the early admissions process pre-empts anyone finding out about the aid they will receive.
The question is a fairness issue – and it is the university’s fault. Doling out financial aid based on need and merit takes time, and by putting in an end run around the waiting time for that process to play out for poorer families, necessarily excludes them which is the whole point.
The way you avoid missing them is by ending or putting “early admissions” past the point where everyone is on a level playing field. The early admissions process is more of a logistical need for colleges to predict the size of incoming classes – but in the universities where they are sure they’ll fill up, they have little excuse except for it to become classicism.
If argued it’s that the colleges need time to comb through applicants, then the process will never be fair and can always be levied towards richer earlier applicants since it will be at their discretion how many seats they put aside after early admissions.
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“The only thing that could be DONE earlier is saving…”
The problem is, you can’t save enough in the years before your kids are ready for college unless you have a large income. My husband and I were both public school teachers. We made good enough salaries, but putting aside a large quantity of money for our 3 kids (we were going to have 2, but the second turned out to be twins!) to go to college was only a dream. 11% of our salaries went to our state retirement fund, for one thing, and most of the rest went to paying our bills. I remember thinking that there was a missing decimal point when I filled out the first FAFSA form! We, and our kids, will be paying off student loans for a while.
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I agree. You may also find a correlation that kids of highly educated parents are more likely to seek early admissions. Also the highly educated parents are likely to be more affluent. Just because the parents are affluent because they are highly educated should not be held against the kids.
It is also clear that more kids of affluent parents getting early admissions makes more financial assistance available to the needy kids of not so affluent parents.
Parents and schools should not be faulted. Let us not go for reverse discrimination which is unconstitutional.
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Do you have a source that would confirm that a school with early admissions has more money for financial aid than a school that doesn’t?
And it’s a curious choice to say that discrimination would be having the schools admit after everyone’s hands are known, and to rather keep doing what we’re doing by rewarding affluence on the promise of more money for needy students.
Show me research backing up your assertion that the money saved on financial aid makes early admissions equitable for poor students.
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Raj, we’re on the same page. This whole discussion should be about how it’s been just accepted that it’s okay that college costs have soared through lack of control by college administrations, an acceptance that education should be paid by huge loans and readily available loans, and the loss of public funding.
A family has to be much more affluent than ever to to pay for multiple kids. It’s a tide that has just swept over us.
I think the start is for states to ignore ALEC, raise some taxes, and adequately fund higher ed to the point where it is affordable to qualified students. That also puts pressure on private schools.
It’s not a coincidence that we have marketed the “everyone go to college” mantra and gotten an unaffordable mess.
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Please, its like concerts and sporting events; all the wealthy annual ticket holders have the great seats, and the leftovers go to the rest of us lowlifes, and we scrape up $100 per seat to treat our kid to a show from the nosebleed section.
Community College is going to be good enough for the rest of us when it is the only option, and the Bachelor’s programs they will offer will be auto repair, hairdressing, medical coding, etc. Now how ridiculous is that, but its happening already.
When it is all said and done, I’ll be unemployed, hoping to qualify for rent assistance, SNAP, Obamacare and my free phone!
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Donna, I couldn’t agree with you more. My husband and I are already seeing that it is going to be a huge problem for our children to get ahold of the education my husband and I did. There is a war right now on the middle class. You don’t really see it talked about that much. But, the middle class needs to wake up…..The rich politicians want to take away our public schools…and they are already making it very difficult to earn a Bachelor’s degree in this country. My husband and I will do anything in our power to help our two kids. We are having to be very creative, and we are having to be willing to
think outside of the box. I love your blogs, Donna!
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I think a good alternative where there are community colleges is to go there (where it is usually cheaper than most 4-year tuition, even with financial aid) as a backup to a shot at early decision. Getting in under a transfer agreement, at least in California, is often the better option. You get the “pedigree” diploma from wherever you transfer to, there are financial aid options for transfer students, and you usually get a better education for the first two year for a better price.
Four-year institutions often have a shockingly dropout rate. Transfer students fill in those spots for students that have dropped out.
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This month’s edition of “The Economist” has a cover story about the rich and affluent pushing out the rest of society’s kids in universities. The brief, rather vapid story that doesn’t even touch the real causes; middle class sinking into poverty, college prices leaving only the wealthy to pocket without having to give up all to put a kid through to graduation, etc. It is void of known facts as one could imagine. I would assert that this brief essay is meant to divert attention from the monstrous drain of middle class kids darkening the doors of higher ed. One, of a conspiratorial mind, might find even darker reasons afoot. Could it be just another cog in the wheel that is crushing the American dream and supplanting it with a wealthy oligarchy from the chasm of income inequality?
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I guess elite uber class means desirable, eh!?!?!
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We’ve known this for quite some time….and, we’ve known the role played the the ACT, and SAT (not to mention AP). It’s getting worse, not better.
So why is little to nothing being done about it?
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$
“The Answer to all our questions”
The dollar sign’s the answer
To almost all our questions
It really does supplant, Sir
The alternate suggestions
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