Closing College Doors to Needy Students

This New York Times article tells the now more common story of even private liberal arts colleges denying financial aid and sometimes even admissions to students who would normally qualify for merit-based scholarships and grants and replacing them with applicants who can pay the entire tuition, room and board, and fees out of pocket. Some of these latter students may not be as qualified in terms of their academics, community service, and extracurricular activities--thus, the ideas of higher education facilitating the so-called American Dream and academia being a meritocracy continue to decay: college becomes just another privilege of the privileged, an opportunity afforded only to those who have the monetary means to pay for it. As a first-generation college student who attended a private liberal arts university on almost a full ride of scholarships and grants based on both merit and financial need, I find this kind of admissions policy deplorable. It is certainly a consequence of the recession (broken record), but longer-term reforms of higher education and access to it need to be implemented, such as greater government subsidies and tuition caps so that the rising cost of attending a university does not outstrip inflation.