Elite colleges and universities have encountered criticism because students from upscale families have come to dominate the schools’ Black enrollments. African-American alumni of an earlier generation and other critics want more low-income students admitted.
National studies, though, show that only a small percentage of high school seniors from poor Black or Hispanic families even bother to apply to the country’s best colleges. Most of these students incorrectly assume they would never get into top schools or could not possibly afford to attend them.
For most of the past decade, seven college-prep programs — most housed at prestigious private universities — have made some headway in reversing this trend and misconception. Collectively, the programs are known as “Preparing High Potential Youth for Excellence and Leadership,” a name given them by the Goldman Sachs Foundation, which provided partial funding.
“It’s important because they don’t have the financial support that is required to prepare for higher education, in many cases, and readiness and preparation for college,” says Dr. Michael T. Nettles, senior vice president of evaluation and research at the Educational Testing Service. “It’s also important for the diversification of colleges and universities.”
Since 2000, the year-round programs built around intensive academic preparation during summers have served 2,000 high school students from underrepresented groups. About three-quarters are African-American or Hispanic. The median annual income of all students’ families was $35,000 and nearly a quarter were living below the federal poverty line.
Except for Catholic school students in New York City, most students attended public schools. Almost 60 percent had no one in their families who had completed college.
The goals of the programs are to lift the students’ aspirations so they aim to attend one of 185 selective colleges, prepare them academically to win admission and then guide them through the application and financial aid process. By those standards, the programs have been a noteworthy success, based on a 2009 evaluation by the Educational Testing Service. Ninety percent of students who start the programs complete them. Through June 2009, 91 percent of the programs’ more than 1,200 graduates had applied to selective colleges, 82 percent were accepted and 70 percent had enrolled in one. Those schools were rated either “most competitive” or “highly competitive” in the 2009 Barron’s profiles of American colleges.
