By Alyson Grigsby CT Visionary
Harvard, Yale, Brown, Stanford.
As the regular decision deadline for many colleges quickly approaches, the names of these highly-selective, world-renowned schools as well as many others attract tens of thousands of applications each year, and this year is no exception.
However, to any student from a low-income or minority background, applying to any of the eight Ivy Leagues or any other highly-selective school seems like a lost cause, and is much less likely to apply.
In fact, out of a study of 900 different valedictorians from various American public schools, only about half of those from lower-middle or working-class backgrounds had applied to selective schools, even when they had the same credentials as the 80 percent of upper-middle or upper-class students who had applied to similar schools.
The reasons why many high-achieving, low-income students do not apply is due to many reasons, one of them being the high cost of attendance, which can reach to more than $250,000 over four years.
Other reasons may include a lack of information about the schools, or because they may be the first in the family to attend college and do not know about the additional benefits or resources these schools may bring.
However, applying to an Ivy League school if you are low-income is obtainable, even without the Gates Millennium scholarship. Many Ivy Leagues such as have adopted very extensive financial aid packages for low-income applicants.
In fact, for any students accepted into Harvard or Yale with an annual income of less than $65,000, there is no expected family contribution, and universities such as Brown and Swathmore offer financial aid packages without loans for low-income students.
As well as the extensive financial aid packages for low-income students, fellowships and other scholarships are also available for low-income and/or minority students, such as the Nasir Jones Hip-Hope Fellowship, created by both HipHop Archive & Research Institute and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at Harvard University in order to help students “who demonstrate exceptional capacity for productive scholarship and exceptional creative ability in the arts, in connection with HipHop.”
An Ivy League education is not completely unattainable for low-income or minority students. However, as students continue their college searches, it is important to not forget our historical black colleges and universities who have been excelling in pre-med and law programs.
Schools such as Howard and Spelman have been ranked in the top five schools for entrance into medical school and into law school.
