Letters: Helping the Poor Go to Good Colleges

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Re "Elite Colleges Differ on How They Aid Poor" (front page, July 31):

At the country's most competitive colleges and universities, only 14 percent of students are from the lower half of the income spectrum. The article reports a range of reasons and apologies for this state of affairs from officials at many of the foremost institutions.

I have a solution for them. Forty-five percent of the undergraduates in the United States attend community colleges. That's 13 million students, and almost all of them fall into that neglected lower half of family income.

At Miami Dade College, 46 percent of our students live beneath the federal poverty standard, and 67 percent are low income. We have an endless supply of brilliant low-income students who would love to attend these great universities. We would be more than willing to assist these students.

Our country faces an expanding and dangerous division between rich and poor. Our system of government does not promise prosperity, but we should be very concerned when the opportunity to learn and prosper is held at a premium.

EDUARDO J. PADRÓN
President, Miami Dade College
Miami, July 31, 2013

To the Editor:

Your article undersells the notable success of women's colleges in supporting economic diversity.

By defining your top college sample based on admit rate, which conveys how few students are admitted and may be discouraging to low-income students, and on test scores, which are demonstrated to be correlated with income, you manage to leave out a college like Smith that consistently surpasses all of the institutions on your list in the share of low-income students.

Fully 25 percent of Smith students are eligible for Pell Grants. We believe that a diverse student body contributes to the powerful educational experience that we provide to each and every student.

As a first-generation college student myself, helped at every step by Pell Grants and generous institutional support, I urge every college president to make access a critical indicator of how she or he defines success.

KATHLEEN McCARTNEY
President, Smith College
Northampton, Mass., Aug. 1, 2013

To the Editor:

As child advocates, we were heartened to read that college administrators recognize the difficulties that students from low-income families undeniably face when applying to, enrolling in and paying for college. Addressing these challenges is of the utmost importance, given the still difficult economy and the overwhelming costs of higher education.

Efforts to assist low-income students must come from admissions and financial aid offices, but we stress that state and local governments, as well as financial institutions, must play roles, too.

These entities, relying on knowledge gained from years of research on asset development, should establish concrete mechanisms to help all families save for their children's college education. They should promote universal access to savings opportunities and encourage parents to start saving while their children are very young.

Efforts should also include initiatives that enable families to link tax-time returns to college savings platforms, like 529 accounts.

JENNIFER MARCH-JOLY
LOUISE FELD
New York, July 31, 2013

The writers are, respectively, executive director of the Citizens' Committee for Children of New York, and the committee's senior policy associate for food and economic security.

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