According to Johns Hopkins, the Class of 2015 will be “one of the most diverse in the university’s history.” Next year’s freshmen hail from all 50 states and a host of other countries; 23 percent of admits are underrepresented minorities. All encouraging facts. But as a recent New York Times article by David Leonhardt points out, economic diversity is still glaringly absent from top schools, and Hopkins is no exception.
One rough measure of economic diversity is the percentage of students who receive Pell Grants from the federal government — an approximate way to figure out how many students come from the bottom half of the income distribution. At Amherst, it’s 22 percent; nearly a third of UCLA and UC Berkeley students fall into this category. Hopkins’ figure? 11 percent.
Which is not to say that the university should be singled out for censure. Actually, it’s alarmingly in keeping with national trends. Leonhardt cites a study that examined the class of 2010 at the nation’s top 193 schools. The economic distribution was way out of whack: only 15 percent of students were from the bottom half of the nation’s income distribution, while 67 percent were from the top quarter. In 2003, there were more students from families that earned at least $200,000 than those in the entire bottom half of the income distribution. As Leonhardt points out, this doesn’t just mean that students from poor families aren’t attending top colleges — it means that the wealthy are increasingly pushing out the middle class.
As Anthony Marx, president of Amherst, told the Times, “We claim to be part of the American dream and of a system based on merit and opportunity and talent, yet if at the top places, two-thirds of the students come from the top quartile and only 5 percent come from the bottom quartile, then we are actually part of the problem of the growing economic divide rather than part of the solution.”
At Amherst, administrators are increasing grants for foreign students (who don’t qualify for Pell Grants) and seeking out transfer students from community colleges. At Hopkins, there’s the Baltimore Scholars program (a full-tuition scholarship for Baltimore City public high school students accepted to the university) and other need-based grant programs. But as Amherst demonstrates, it takes a lot more effort to correct the existing imbalance.
Is this enough? Is increasing economic diversity something the university should prioritize?
The good news is that Obama has expanded Pell Grants so more kids who need help going to college are able to get loans. More good news: the Obama administration has adjusted student loan payments to the graduate’s salary, so teachers don’t have to work two jobs just to pay off their student loans! Still, we need to work harder to get kids who need financial aid into the top universities.
Johns Hopkins also has a self-funded program that provides full-tuition scholarships for any Baltimore City student that is accepted to the University. http://apply.jhu.edu/pdf/2006/baltimore_scholars_qanda.pdf I think it’s been around for many years.
Yep, exactly — Baltimore Scholars is one of the school’s big need-based grant programs. It’s a great program — but still, that only accounts for about 15 students per year…
I think the real group being “pushed out” are the middle: the ones who don’t qualify for Pell grants because their parent’s income is too high but not high enough to afford the tuition without crippling loans.
As a parent in the parochial/private school community of Baltimore I also feel most schools try to admit candidates with the greatest chance of success at their school.
School admission is a complicated issue. Economics is only part of it
I grew up in Baltimore city and went to Hopkins on a full ride (mostly JHU grants/scholarships, supplemented with a few outside scholarships). I wouldn’t have been able to go without the aid from Hopkins. I went to a Catholic school in Baltimore, so didn’t qualify for the Baltimore Scholars program.
I think the reason I got so much aid was b/c I was raised by a single mom with a lower-middle class income raising 3 kids (2 in college, 1 in high school when I started at JHU). If there was a Dad in the picture, even though we would have been in the same socioeconomic class, I doubt I would have qualified for even half as much help.
Regardless, the opportunity changed my life trajectory, and I couldn’t be more thankful for it. I hope Hopkins continues to identify, admit, and support similar applicants.