Report: Only five colleges properly serve needy students - College, Inc. - The Washington Post: A new report from the nonprofit Education Trust finds only five U.S. colleges that properly serve the disadvantaged — by offering a quality education to a significant number of low-income students at a reasonable price.
The report, issued this month, draws this stark conclusion from new federal data on the net price of higher education, after accounting for grant aid.
Dozens — perhaps hundreds — of colleges offer sufficient need-based aid for the neediest students, those with family incomes below $30,200. Those students may pay only a small fraction of the full “sticker” price to attend.
But in EdTrust’s view, most schools don’t do enough. Low-income families received an average of $9,704 in grant aid in 2007, leaving an unmet need of $11,352. That’s about three-quarters of their total income.
The analysis found 275 colleges that require their neediest students to pay more than their total family income to attend.
