True Merit: Ensuring Our Brightest Students Have Access to Our Best Colleges and Universities

The Jack Kent Cooke Foundation's 2016 study analyzes the admissions process and its impact on high-achieving, low-income applicants to selective colleges and universities.

Key findings include:

• Only 3% of students at the most selective schools come from the 25% of families with the lowest incomes, while 72% come from the wealthiest 25% of the U.S. population.
• Over 80% of the nation's most selective institutions give preference to children of alumni, who are typically wealthy, and recruited athletes are as much as four times as likely to be admitted as other similarly qualified students.
• High-achieving, low-income students are half as likely as wealthier students to take ACT/SAT prep courses, even though these courses are documented to raise scores.
• Ninety-two % of high-ability, low-income students who managed to enroll in selective colleges and universities graduated and performed well academically.

Current admissions systems unfairly disadvantage top students from low-income families. Strategies such as eliminating preferences for wealthier applicants and providing better information and support to high-achieving, low-income students can help ensure their talent is recognized and opportunities are equitable.