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Access to the Most Selective Private Colleges by High-Ability, Low-Income Students: Are They Out There?

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  • Gordon C. Winston
  • Catharine B. Hill

Abstract

With only a small number of their students coming from families with the lowest incomes (10% from the bottom two family income quintiles), the nation's most selective private colleges and universities need to know why. Two ready ideological answers are (1) that low-income high-ability students are being excluded in order to favor the children of society's most advantaged or (2) that very few low-income high-ability students exist - that by college age, low-income students have been so damaged by education, nutrition, neighborhoods, and families that few can qualify in a perfectly fair admissions process. This paper uses the national population of high school test-takers in 2003 to examine the national distribution over family incomes of high-ability students (variously defined). With these data, two questions can be addressed. What would be the target share of low-income students at these schools if their student bodies were to mirror the national high-ability population? And, are they out there - do there exist enough such low- income, high-ability students to meet those targets? It is shown that they are out there - that a somewhat larger share of the test-taking population is made up of high-ability, low-income students than are found in these schools and that their numbers make it feasible for the schools to increase their enrollments to target that national share. Because much depends on the definition of "high-ability" used, we consider alternative definitions but reach the same conclusion at any reasonable level (like a minimum combined SAT of 1300 or even 1420).

Suggested Citation

  • Gordon C. Winston & Catharine B. Hill, 2005. "Access to the Most Selective Private Colleges by High-Ability, Low-Income Students: Are They Out There?," Williams Project on the Economics of Higher Education DP-69, Department of Economics, Williams College.
  • Handle: RePEc:wil:wilehe:69
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. James Heckman, 2011. "Policies to foster human capital," Voprosy obrazovaniya / Educational Studies Moscow, National Research University Higher School of Economics, issue 3, pages 73-137.
    2. Jacob L. Vigdor & Charles T. Clotfelter, 2003. "Retaking the SAT," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 38(1).
    3. Card, David & Payne, A. Abigail, 2002. "School finance reform, the distribution of school spending, and the distribution of student test scores," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 83(1), pages 49-82, January.
    4. Catharine B. Hill & Gordon C. Winston & Stephanie A. Boyd, 2005. "Affordability: Family Incomes and Net Prices at Highly Selective Private Colleges and Universities," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 40(4), pages 769-790.
    5. Caroline M. Hoxby, 1997. "How the Changing Market Structure of U.S. Higher Education Explains College Tuition," NBER Working Papers 6323, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
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    Cited by:

    1. Amanda Pallais, 2015. "Small Differences That Matter: Mistakes in Applying to College," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(2), pages 493-520.
    2. Lois Miller & Humberto Barreto, 2017. "The Role Of Distance In College Undermatching," Working Papers 2017-01, DePauw University, School of Business and Leadership and Department of Economics and Management.
    3. John A. Karikari & Hashem Dezhbakhsh, 2013. "Are selective private and public colleges affordable?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(1), pages 60-78, February.
    4. Christopher Avery, 2010. "The Effects of College Counseling on High-Achieving, Low-Income Students," NBER Working Papers 16359, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    5. Amanda Pallais, 2013. "Small Differences that Matter: Mistakes in Applying to College," NBER Working Papers 19480, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.

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