Richer. But wiser? (as submitted to Highestwire)

Submitted by The Emery Staff on Monday, August 16, 2004 at 01:09:24 AM EST.

University of Michigan campus. Hi-res version of photo (526 K)

With minimum wage work unable to cover most university’s skyrocketing tuition costs, more high school students from middle to lower class families are unable to afford a college education. It shows in admissions numbers: application rates of high school seniors from middle class families to universities across the country are down five percent since 1999.

And this year at the University of Michigan, the numbers do not lie. The entering freshman class has more students whose parents make “at least $200,000 a year than have parents making less than the national median of about $53,000,” according to the April 22, 2004 issue of the New York Times. “At most selective private universities… more fathers of freshman are doctors than are hourly workers, teachers, clergy members, farmers or members of the military-combined.”

The University of Michigan’s new application, which was designed in the wake of the Supreme Court decision on the University of Michigan’s affirmative action policy (the court upheld affirmative acton but decided the point system, which gave a substancial amount of points to minorities,was unconstitutional), contained a section that allowed students to explain their family income and if their parents and grandparents attended university.

“We certainly want to look at ways to create a better distribution of students,” University of Michigan admissions director Theodore L. Spencer said in the New York Times.

Experts offer the prominence of expensive cars, and the willingness of students to pay up to $800 a month to live off campus, as telltale signs of wealth on a universiity campus. They also point to the tuition increases (the average undergraduate tuition is expected to rise ten percent this year), and the “phenomenal efforts many wealthy parents put into preparing their children to apply to the best schools,” the New York Times article said.

Did your parents, or your friend’s parents, shell out $1,000 for a SAT preparatory course?

According to the Higher Education Research Institute, 40 percent of entering freshman at the 42 most selective state universities come from families with an income of more than $100,000 a year, which is up from 32 percent in 1999. Less than 20 percent of families are in that income range nationwide.

“We were founded on the principle of allowing larger numbers of students to go to college in an affordable way,” Spencer said. “But having said that, the price of college has gone up, and many of the truly needy will not bother to apply.”

Additional resources:

Undergraduate admissions application, 2004-05 (PDF format), 1010 K.

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