Divergent Approaches to Access: How Selective College Admissions Offices Recruit Lower-Income Students

• In Event: Who's the Culprit? Power, Mobility, and (In)Stability on College Access

Abstract

Research on socioeconomic gaps in college attendance tends to focus more on students and less on how colleges contribute to these disparities. This study investigates why so few lower-income students apply to selective colleges by interviewing selective college admissions personnel about their approaches to recruitment. Institutions with a stronger record of recruiting lower-income students actively sought out new initiatives to make their college more accessible for low-SES students while those with a poorer track record of recruiting economically diverse talent seemed less aware of roadblocks to admission. Moreover, the more successful colleges described their efforts as aimed at improving larger societal inequalities while the less successful colleges seemed more focused on improving their individual schools.

Authors

• Hannah Gunther, Colgate University

• Janel Benson, Colgate University