The Climb to the Top, and the Aid Students Need to Climb

Low-income high school students sit facing their computers to check the letter that could potentially change their lives and their families' lives. This fateful day that rolls around every year, coined as “Ivy Day”, determines the futures of nearly four hundred thousand college applicants every year.[^1] These prestigious universities are labeled as the best education students can gain in the entire country and serve as academic institutions that create future leaders and professionals. For first-generation low-income students, the dream of receiving an acceptance from their dream school continues to exist, but prestigious universities are making efforts to mitigate this gap. The rising inequality of income and wealth across the United States, in addition to the increasing cost of higher education, threaten college access, and students professional pathway.[^2] To understand the ways in which Ivy League, and prestigious universities alike, are attempting to create more accessible entrance into their academic institutions, we must understand the roots of the institutions. Higher education started as a privileged institution, designed to propel a certain model of students and exclude other students. In the Middle Ages across Europe, higher education institutions educated young men of wealthy families to advance in esteemed careers such as lawyers, doctors, or church officials. For generations, the sons of poor families, such as farmers, were only taught the crafts of their fathers and lacked the access to education the sons of the wealthy were granted. Poor students who could attend elite universities, such as Isaac Newton and Zachary Bridge, were treated as second-class citizens by their wealthy peers. As access to education expanded with financial support from these academic institutions, the challenge remained on what would classify students' need for financial support. In 1933, Russel Sharpe wrote the essay “College and the Poor Boy” which shared the new policy at Yale University, the third-oldest institution of higher education, that would admit as many financially needed students as their aid level could support. This new policy was believed to punish deserving students who could not afford higher education, and Sharpe believed that making colleges more exclusive would exacerbate the issue created by the policy. Sharpe expressed how, if fewer students were admitted, institutions could fund scholars who could not afford the price and life of higher education. Sharpe’s efforts reinforced the privilege of higher education, and as 20th-century universities visualized their student body, it remained predominantly consistent of white, male, wealthy students. Institutional barriers universities placed, such as denying admission to minority students or allowing faculty to refuse to teach minority students, created nearly unconquerable barriers to higher education, designing protection for privileged students who had full access to the education they wanted. Due to the institutionalized policies that developed through the expansion of prestigious higher education, these policies, though not as restricting, still limit low-income minority students in today’s education system.[^3] The recent decisions of the SCOTUS regarding affirmative action (a policy aimed at increasing the representation of minorities) only perpetuate the already present challenges low-income students face.[^4] In the workforce, affirmative action meant enacting policies designed to promote hiring underrepresented groups, but in college admissions, it meant further consideration for underrepresented students. In the late 1960s, universities considered race as a factor in students' application in order to accept students who had historically been excluded from higher education. In today’s world, affirmative action is seen in most prestigious universities as they are among the most selective institutions, at least until the Supreme Court ruled such action unconstitutional. The efforts of civil rights promoted this policy of affirmative action and urged schools to accept more minority students. Through the 21st century, affirmative action expanded to predominantly low-income minority groups, as marginalized groups typically feel the need for financial aid.[^5] With the United States Supreme Court decision on the overturning of Affirmative Action, many Ivy League schools look to alternatives of what they can do to promote equitable education access without the policy of affirmative action. After the overturning, President Joe Biden advocated that universities ask students to speak on their hardships in order to maintain diversity and equity on these campuses. However, some argue that it is unfair to ask students to speak on their adversities and their own lived experiences to gain acceptance into an institution. With that feedback, others argued that because universities cannot be race-conscious in their admission process, they should consider socioeconomic class as a tool to maintain diversity.[^6] The U.S. Census Bureau demonstrates the ways in which socioeconomic class is closely intertwined with race and as such, these communities typically share challenges in economic development and low levels of education attainment.[^7] Due to these close relationships, universities believe that aiding low-income students will help promote diversity and continued equity on their campuses, and it will. Because of the close relationship between socioeconomic status and ethnicity or race, minority and first-generation students will have more opportunities to attain higher education at this prestigious university. While this change is positive as many universities, moving into approaches and standards such as “100% demonstrated need” (a promise to pay the difference between a school's cost of attendance, known as COA, and the student's Student Aid Index number), there are still limiting factors that hinder low-income and minority students from accessing this level of education.[^8]8 Among the continued barriers that limit low-income students from attending or gaining acceptance into an Ivy League institution include, but are not limited to, standardized testing, culture shock, and lack of awareness. Standardized testing primarily includes the common tests of the SAT, Scholastic Aptitude Test, and the ACT, American College Testing. Among these standardized tests, the scores students receive allow universities to compare their scores to their school, examine if their scores meet the college readiness criteria of their university, placement in college classes, and possibly a metric of scholarships.[^9] While these tests help determine college readiness, some barriers negatively impact low-income students in achieving high scores in these exams or even the access to take them. In access to the test, many schools have adopted fee waivers to allow students the opportunity to take the SAT or ACT for up to two fee tests, meditating the financial challenges some students may face to take the exam.[^10] While this is helpful to many students, this limits the number of free tests students can take compared to their wealthy student counterparts who have the financial resources to take as many tests as they choose to and access costly tutors and academic resources. Universities, and institutions like the College Board, should promote a system where low-income students can apply for further financial assistance to take more than two standardized tests, and as such, promote more access to SAT and ACT guides like their current digital platform of Khan Academy, which is free for students to use. Additionally, universities should follow the test-optional path, where students have the choice to submit standardized test scores, and as a result, may submit AP Scores in replacement or create a larger emphasis on other parts of their application that demonstrate college readiness.[^11] Through both cultural shock and lack of awareness, this boils down to a societal dilemma. Cultural shock is defined as feelings of anxiety, confusion, or uncertainty that stem from experiencing a change in culture through confronting a new way of life and community.[^12] Changes in social forms, language or speech patterns, and even income can play a role in culture shock, causing students to feel like outsiders.[^13] Universities can overcome these challenges for both purposes of diversity expansion and the wellness of their students through the promotion of socio-economic consideration in their application over past affirmative action policies, and as such, provide accepted students a safe space. This safe space can entail access to wellness counselors, grants that allow students to visit home between breaks, and the promotion of affinity groups, which are groups formed to connect with others on shared ideologies, cultures, or ways of life. Within the lack of diversity, low-income students sometimes lack the awareness of these opportunities and the support to work towards academic achievement. Some students may not even think to work towards academic success because of the high cost associated with colleges, as well as the economic deprivation their families may face, and as such, limiting students time to focus on their studies or find interest in expanding their studies.[^14] Because students may also work to support their families, they may not be able to take the time to work towards attending an Ivy League school, or can not afford to leave their families to attend college. This systemic issue causes students to either never attain faith or lose such faith in attending an Ivy League because their family cannot financially support them, or their family cannot financially survive without the economic support of their children. If universities want to truly support education access to students of all backgrounds, they should foster scholarships that include the cost of living as well, with grants that cover living expenses such as potential new clothes for different climates, among room and board. Furthermore, students with economically struggling families should be provided grants, either by the universities themselves, or outside organizations with a mission to help low-income students achieve higher education, that provide their families with economic support. As Ivy League Universities continue to find the proper solutions for their institutions on what education access and diversity look like for them, they should take into consideration the challenges low-income students face, and provide effective support to aid students in acceptance and attendance at these institutions. [^1]: [Shemmasian Academic Consultants, 2024](https://www.shemmassianconsulting.com/blog/ivy-league-acceptance-rates#:~:text=The%20admissions%20statistics%20are%20sobering,a%20record%20low%20at%204.9%25.) [^2]: [Penn Graduate School of Education, 2022](https://www.gse.upenn.edu/news/press-releases/new-indicators-report-show-escalating-disparities-poor-students-students-color#:~:text=The%20disparity%20itself%20is%20not,17%20percent%20of%20white%20students.) [^3]: [Best Colleges, 2021](https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/2020/07/17/history-privilege-higher-education/) [^4]: [Burke, 2023](https://www.highereddive.com/news/early-decision-policies-under-fire/700501/) [^5]: [Shafer, 2018](https://www.gse.harvard.edu/ideas/usable-knowledge/18/07/case-affirmative-action#:~:text=Affirmative%20action%20was%20developed%20in,the%20United%20States%20Supreme%20Court.) [^6]: [Shah, 2023](https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2023/7/28/admissions-post-supreme-court/) [^7]: [American Psychological Association, 2017](https://www.apa.org/pi/ses/resources/publications/minorities#:~:text=The%20relationship%20between%20SES%2C%20race,SES%2C%20race%2C%20and%20ethnicity.) [^8]: [Korzekwinski & Williams, 2024](https://scholarships360.org/financial-aid/demonstrate-financial-need/#:~:text=Simply%20put%2C%20demonstrated%20financial%20need,does%20not%20equal%20the%20COA.) [^9]: [College Board, n.d.](https://bigfuture.collegeboard.org/plan-for-college/apply-to-college/8-things-to-know-about-how-colleges-use-admission-tests#:~:text=SAT%20scores%20help%20colleges%20compare,%2C%20course%20rigor%2C%20and%20recommendations.) [^10]: [College Board, 2023](https://satsuite.collegeboard.org/media/pdf/sat-fee-waiver-student-brochure.pdf) [^11]: [College Board, 2023](https://blog.collegeboard.org/what-is-a-test-optional-college) [^12]: [Segal et al., 2024](https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/culture-shock.asp#:~:text=Culture%20shock%20refers%20to%20feelings,being%20in%20an%20unfamiliar%20environment.) [^13]: [Cushman, 2007](https://www.ascd.org/el/articles/facing-the-culture-shock-of-college) [^14]: [Dwyer, 2017](https://theithacan.org/25234/news/low-income-students-face-systemic-barriers-to-college-access/)