Since the “Operation Varsity Blues” scandal first made headlines, celebrity court proceedings have continued to dominate news coverage. Just this week, myriad media reports from across the country focused on actress Felicity Huffman’s guilty plea for her role in the cheating scam. But the larger issues of access to higher education and the ongoing and substantial efforts by colleges and universities to address systemic inequity have scarcely been covered in the wake of the scandal. Nor has the effect of those efforts.
The disadvantages for our country’s most vulnerable students — lower-income, first-generation, under-represented students — are numerous. From the release of lists of legal ways to subvert the admissions process, to the realization that standardized test scores can be bought and sold, it has been made painfully clear that students of wealth and privilege have all of the advantages when it comes to higher education.
But perhaps this scandal, rather than exemplifying a rigged admissions process that reinforces structures of privilege, is actually, at least in part, a byproduct of efforts to fix the system.
Over the last three years, several of the country’s prominent colleges and universities have introduced new and significant financial aid programs, unveiled outreach events to connect with first-generation students and those from lower-income backgrounds, and created new supports to improve degree attainment for all students.
This year, Virginia Tech made adjustments to its admissions process that resulted in a record-setting applicant pool — it wasn’t its largest, but it was its most diverse in school history. Applications increased four percent for first-generation students, three percent for Hispanic/Latino students, 13 percent for African-American students, 19 percent for Native American students, and 16 percent for veterans.Last spring, the University of Chicago expanded its program that provides full financial support to children of firefighters and police in Chicago to include children of first responders across the U.S. And in March, the University of Pittsburgh announced a groundbreaking financial aid program for Pell Grant recipients that matches their federal awards with institutional grants.
Similarly, in announcing recently admitted classes of 2023, colleges and universities with exceptionally low acceptance rates touted the changing composition of their first-year classes.Yale reported that the number of first-year students with Pell Grants is 98 percent higher than it was five years ago. Meanwhile, the percentage of low-income students attending Princeton has tripled over the last decade.
Positive trends like these are representative of those of the entire Coalition for College, a collaboration of more than 150 colleges and universities dedicated to improving access, affordability, and success in the college admissions process. The Coalition aims to make college an option for all students, particularly those from historically under-represented groups.
