St. Ben's joins effort to enroll more low-, middle-income students
Three Minnesota schools are part of a national effort to enroll more low- and middle-income students at colleges with high graduation rates.
Carleton College and the College of St. Benedict are the latest to join the 68-member American Talent Initiative. The University of Minnesota joined in April.
Participating schools pledge to prioritize need-based financial aid, recruit more low- and middle-income students, and support them when they get to campus.
“Research shows us that each year high-performing students are not attending the institutions where they have the most likelihood of graduating, and we can and must do more,” U of M President Eric Kaler said in a prepared statement.
The initiative aims to enlist 270 colleges and universities with six-year graduation rates consistently above 70 percent. The group goal is to enroll 50,000 such students by 2025.
A $1.7 million Bloomberg Philanthropies grant will pay for research, the sharing of best practices and meetings among college presidents and staff.
Carleton’s efforts to serve needy students got a major boost in October when the Barbara and Wally Weitz family committed $20 million in matching grants toward a fundraising campaign for need-based scholarships.
If the $40 million campaign is successful, Carleton says, it will generate enough ongoing income each year to cover the cost of college for 40 to 45 students.
“It is so important to keep the American dream of higher education real for first-generation and low-income students, whether they live in a remote Alaskan village or in urban public housing,” Carleton admissions dean Paul Thiboutot said.
The Northfield private school has come under scrutiny for the small number of low-income students it serves.
In January, the Equality of Opportunity Project found just 15.5 percent of Carleton students came from families in the bottom 60 percent by income. Nearly as many students, 14.4 percent, came from families in the top 1 percent by income.
The same study found 23 percent of University of Minnesota students and 18.1 percent of those at St. Benedict come from families in the bottom 60 percent by income. St. Benedict is a Roman Catholic women’s college in St. Joseph.
Many of the same schools are members of the Coalition for Access, Affordability and Success, which offers an alternative college application portal that allows students to share more about themselves than just grades and test scores.
It too was an attempt, at least in part, to recruit more students who are underrepresented at the nation’s best colleges.