Disappointing Results in Performance of the Nation’s Top Liberal Arts Colleges in Enrolling More Low-Income Students

Last week JBHE released its highly disappointing results showing significant declines in low-income students at the nation’s 30 highest-ranked universities.

Now we turn our attention to the performance of the nation’s top liberal arts colleges in enrolling low-income students.

JBHE’s data on federal Pell Grants for low-income students, obtained from the Department of Education, shows that over the past 23 years only 10 of the nation’s 30 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges have shown progress in increasing the percentage of low-income students enrolled in undergraduate programs. Smith and Mount Holyoke posted the largest gains. The largest declines have occurred at Barnard, Oberlin, and Macalester.

In the 1993 to 2006 or intermediate period, only six of the 30 top liberal arts colleges had gains in their percentage of low-income students. Twenty-four colleges saw their percentage of low-income students decline.

Since 2004 only four of the nation’s 30 highest-ranked liberal arts colleges have shown improvement. They are Williams, Bowdoin, Carleton, and Colby.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.