University of Wisconsin is considering a move from need-based scholarship to merit-based scholarships, signaling a major shift in terms of what kinds of students are going to attend UW.
Need-based aid is exactly what you think it is — need-based. Whoever needs money to pay for college should get it. Merit-based aid is given to high achieving students who have special talents, such as high intelligence or the ability to play basketball really well.
Currently, UW offers half the merit-based aid as University of Iowa, University of Michigan or Ohio State, the top schools in terms of merit-based aid in the Big Ten. UW Chancellor Rebecca Blank believes offering more aid for high achievers will make UW a more viable option for top students.
But UW is merely getting caught in a wave of boosting a school’s academic influence and prestige at the expense of admitting lower-income and diverse students.
The Atlantic reported most aid that is not based strictly on need goes to high-income families, usually in a money-making scheme. The philosophy is that either a university can offer to pay $20,000 for a needy person’s full tuition or the university can provide four $5,000 merit-based scholarships to wealthier individuals, thus bringing in $60,000 into the university. So instead of paying for a lower-income student’s entire tuition, a university can give partial aid to wealthier candidates and can make money off the wealthier admits.
Of course, the argument could be made that offering merit-based aid rewards the people that truly deserve help in college, but it misses the social constructs that allow certain groups — the affluent — to be more successful at college preparedness measures and standardized tests than other groups — the poor.
Time Magazine reported the test gap between rich and poor students has grown by 60 percent since the 1960s. This systematically excludes poorer members of society from receiving scholarships for high achievement.
The reason for lower-income students performing poorly is not the student’s fault. Wealthy parents spend 1,300 more hours on their children’s education from age zero to six than their low-income counterparts. Additionally, the achievement gap between wealthy and low-income pre-college students is 37 percent the fault of differences in curriculum.
UW should not be punishing the truly needy because the system of education has failed lower-income families, but this administration continues to construct barriers to creating a more diverse atmosphere. Instead, they’ve been forging a path that creates a monolithic student body consisting of the privileged.
Previous pandering to the privilege include ending the out-of-state acceptance limits, allowing the university to target wealthier individuals that can manage to pay for the $10,000 tuition increases levied upon out-of-state individuals.
UW’s diversity efforts will surely be hurt by a move to merit-based need. I vehemently believe members of UW’s Division of Diversity, Equity and Educational Achievement truly abide by their goals “to create a diverse, inclusive and excellent learning and work environment for all students, faculty, staff, alumni and others who partner with the university.” The only group against this mission statement seems to be UW itself.
I’m certain minority students will be the most affected by the changes in aid awards. In 2005, SAT data was analyzed and showed that, overall, white kids outscored black kids on the SAT by 204 points. When comparing white children whose families earned less than $10,000, they outscored their black counterparts, who made between $80,000 and $100,000 annually, by 61 points.
Even affluent black people do not achieve at the same level as low-income white people, probably because standardized tests are designed to have white students succeed. A 2010 study found the verbal section of the SAT favored white test takers due to its language. Additionally, ACT language was found to be biased against non-white students because of the use of idioms not present in minority cultures.
I’m sure some people are OK with these developments, agreeing with Blank when she said, “I’ve got to keep some of those top students in Wisconsin.”
But I cannot. The traditional metrics used to evaluate prospective students, a standardized test score and grade point average, are already disabling to underprivileged youths. Adding an end to out-of-state acceptance and moving aid from need-based to merit-based is the signal of what Blank and this administration want from UW — prestige at any cost.
Especially since this is a public university, I cannot align with this ideology.
Aaron Reilly ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in comparative literature and Russian.
