College Planning Blog

Recent news reports about Ivy League colleges offering “free education” to students from middle-class families paint a highly unrealistic picture of the challenges facing the majority of college-bound students.

With college costs weighing heavily on many Americans, it must have seemed heartening when NBC news anchor Brian Williams introduced a segment on the March 7 NBC Nightly News by saying: “Finally for American middle class families there is long overdue help on the way…”

The segment reported by Rehema Ellis profiled a high achieving young woman from a hardworking, middle-income family who is waiting to hear back from several Ivy League institutions to which she has applied. While the admission outcomes are still unknown, the young woman is clearly relieved by news that these schools have declared that middle income students can attend tuition-free. “Knowing that the tuition will be free just takes a huge load off,” she says.

Ellis tells viewers that many of the nation’s wealthiest institutions have reached out to middle income families by redefining “middle income” and converting need-based loans to scholarships for these students.

Unfortunately, this report perpetuates the great myth about higher education–the notion that academic quality exists only at the wealthiest and most elite colleges. Most cruelly, however, it offers false encouragement to many families of college-bound students. While Ellis is careful to point out that opportunity is out there for young people who “make the grade,” it’s not clear to whom she is referring.

The straight “A” record shown in the on-screen graphic could belong to any of the approximately 50,000 soon-to-be high school graduates who rank first or second in their respective classes. And that number doesn’t include other highly-ranked students at extemely competitive high schools around the country. You don’t need to be a math major to see there are more straight-A students than available slots at elite colleges.

So, who is really being served by this media coverage? Not the average consumer. By rough count, less than one-half of one percent of young people entering college next fall will actually benefit. The relative handful of students who will be affected by the largesse of the wealthy elite institutions are only those fortunate enough to have been invited to “join” in the first place!

For the rest of us, these news stories represent little more than sheer fantasy.

It is disingenuous to suggest that de facto merit scholarships at these institutions create more access and opportunity. The elite colleges are merely doing what’s necessary to shore up their own enrollments. Don’t think for a minute that they are expanding their enrollments to include larger numbers of middle-income students. It simply isn’t going to happen.

Middle-income students do have affordable, quality options at hundreds of colleges across the country. Finding them requires a student-centered approach to college planning. Assuming the best measure of a good and fulfilling college education is the experience a student can take from it, students need to be coached to look past the obvious cachet of an institution for evidence that it is a good “fit” for them. Here’s why.

The likelihood of receiving scholarship assistance at any college goes up in direct proportion to the student’s desirability at that college. As a result, the formula for affording college expenses is fairly simple: find institutions that value the student for what s/he does well. Colleges that are good “fits” will invest in the student’s success.

Does that mean that loans will convert to scholarships for every student? It’s highly doubtful. But college can be more affordable to every student if the selection process is approached prudently. By putting themselves into competition at places that value them for what they do well, students give themselves better chances of receiving the funding support they need while benefiting from productive and fulfilling educational experiences.

It is a mistake to assume that the “gold” standard of educational access and opportunity rests with the wealthy elite. Rather, the efforts to improve access felt by most Americans are being implemented without fanfare on the campuses of hundreds of lesser-known institutions around the country. Perhaps, focusing on “fit” instead of famous names will reveal that the “long overdue help” for middle class families has been within reach all along.