Colleges Can Do More to Find 'Strivers'

Low-income students can overcome the odds to do quite well despite disadvantages

By Nancy Leopold

The nation's most-selective colleges say they want to admit more low-income students, and there is clear evidence that many more such students could do the work and succeed.

Yet the numbers remain stubbornly low: In 2006, only 5 percent of the students admitted to the nation's most competitive institutions came from families in the bottom socioeconomic quartile, according to data that appear in the new book Rewarding Strivers: Helping Low-Income Students Succeed in College