Marx's Efforts at Amherst

Keeping with the higher ed admissions track, Business Week wrote an extensive article several weeks ago about Amherst President Tony Marx's efforts to bring more economically disadvantaged students to his campus. The article does a good job of outlining the challenges Marx faces in his quest. To reduce resistance from wealthy applicants/alumni who object that prioritizing economic diversity with deny the "most qualified" students Amherst admissions (over 6000 applied for slightly over 400 spots last year), Marx plans on increasing the overall enrollment by 25% and earmarking those slots for economic diversity. The plan will require a capital fundraising campaign of hundreds of millions of dollars for new dorms, classrooms and professorships, but rich kids won't have to suffer reduced chance at admission. In the meantime,

[Marx is] hoping that by the fall, faculty and trustees will approve a formal plan to give more of Amherst's coveted slots, perhaps as many as 25%, to students poor enough to qualify for a Pell Grant (usually meaning a family income of less than $40,000 a year). Doing so would vault Amherst far ahead of other elite privates such as Harvard University, where 10% of undergrads are low-income. "If we are sufficiently aggressive, we will force the rest of elite higher education to be much more serious about this," says Marx.

One can only hope.

I may be a little biased on this one. I was one of the very few first-generation college students (of any racial background) at my own undergraduate institution (they don't publish the numbers, but I was told that in the Class of 2003, it was about 6%). I went to a small-town public high school where most students don't immediately go on to higher education. We had one AP course, and most of the class didn't sit for the exam. I imagine that the admissions office considered these facts to my advantage when comparing me to the richly talented and academically/culturally nurtured students I competed with for a spot in my class. In the end, I was able to attend only because of a need-blind admissions policy and the incredibly generous financial aid package I was offered.

Did I experience culture shock when I arrived on campus (and through the whole 4 years)? You bet. But was I underprepared to succeed in a rigorous intellectual environment? In hindsight, I'd say that my fear that was the case was more of a hurdle in my first year than my educational background itself. I don't think I'm unique in that, either. If elite colleges seek students with demonstrated passion for learning and perseverance, regardless of their childhood cultural grooming, the incredible resources available at such places can bear some amazing results.