Interesting excerpt: Unfortunately, theres a real world impact here. In recent years theres been a lot of attention to the issue of undermatching. This is the finding that a majority of highest-achieving but low-income students fail to apply to a single competitive college. Even when financial need means that they would pay little or nothing to attend a school like Harvard or Stanford, these students are instead choosing non-selective schools that tend to have a lower advertised price. Marvin Mathew is a first-generation American who grew up with a single mom in New York City. Though he was a strong student, he applied only to community colleges as a freshman. I had this assumption that everything was too expensive, why even try? The high sticker prices at private schools, he says, did a lot to turn him off. Look at NYU: $50,000 a year. Thats crazy! Then I see City College, $4,000. My first instinct is, its more affordable. Research indicates that students like Mathew from modest backgrounds may shy away from top colleges because theyre misled by high prices, unfamiliar with the complicated student aid form, or are unwilling to share the financial information required by the form. In any case, its likely that the prevalence of discounting, while a mixed bag for the universities that engage in it, harms some of the most vulnerable students as well. As Mathew puts it, No one knows what colleges actually cost. [Copyright 2014 NPR]
Posted on: Sun, 13 Jul 2014 07:02:54 +0000