Colleges Help Rich Students With Merit Aid. The Poor Get Bigger Bills

Colleges are using financial aid to lure rich students while shortchanging the poor, forcing those most in need to take on heavy debt. Almost two-thirds of private institutions require students from families making $30,000 or less annually to pay more than $15,000 a year, according to a report released in May by the New America Foundation, a public policy institute in Washington.

The research—analyzing U.S. Department of Education data from 479 private nonprofit four-year colleges for the 2010-11 school year—undercuts the claims of many wealthy colleges that financial-aid practices make their institutions affordable, says Stephen Burd, the report’s author. “Colleges are always saying how committed they are to admitting low-income students—that they are all about equality,” he says. “This data shows there’s been a dramatic shift. The pursuit of prestige and revenue has led them to focus more on high-income students.”