Large Numbers of Highly Qualified, Low-Income Students Are Not Applying to Harvard and Other Highly Selective Schools

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education

An impressive new study finds that there is no shortage of academically strong students from low-income families. As a result, colleges and universities setting plans to enroll more low-income applicants need not relax admissions policies, which may result in lower mean SAT scores and other qualifications of entering students.

Fears are unwarranted that efforts to increase the number of low-income students will produce a lowering of their U.S. News & World Report rankings. Rather than lowering their academic standards, the nation's selective colleges and universities need to do a better job at identifying high-achieving, low-income students and convincing them to apply.


A solid and carefully researched new study conducted by the National Bureau of Economic Research establishes that there are a sizable number of low-income students in the United States with high academic qualifications who are not applying to the nation's highest-ranked colleges and universities. The researchers, including Harvard University economist Caroline Hoxby, examined data from The College Board for all students who had grade point averages and standardized test scores that were high enough for Harvard's academic standards. In this pool of potential Harvard students, they found thousands of low-income students who did not consider applying to Harvard.