NU, students consider fairness of financial affirmative action

Some favor leveling playing field, but others question offering edge

By Diana Scholl

Contributing writer

When Spring Break came around, Communication sophomore Megan Duffy said she was shocked that her classmates were traveling across the world with no regard for the cost of their trips.

“Northwestern is absolutely a school of rich kids,” Duffy said. “Among students, there is just a standard lack of concern for what things cost.”

On April 22 The New York Times reported what already was obvious to Duffy and most of her peers: The wealthy are more likely than their lower-class counterparts to attend prestigious universities.

This has led many to believe that more economic diversity should be promoted on campuses.

NU has no plans to change its admissions policy to increase economic diversity, said Rebecca Dixon, associate provost for university enrollment. However, the school is committed to giving financial aid to needy students.

“Northwestern thinks economic diversity is good here. Increasing economic diversity is not a goal we have specifically talked about,” she said.

Although finances are not directly taken into account during admissions decisions, Dixon said NU’s Office of Admission, “not so much weighs economics, but the disadvantage of economics.”

For example students will be “given an extra look” if their parents never attended college, if they only took the SAT exam once, or if there were no Advanced Placement courses offered at their school, she said.

The idea of financial affirmative action, in which students from poorer families would receive a leg up in admissions decisions, has been discussed in admissions offices as a possible method to increase economic diversity on college campuses across the country.

NU President Henry Bienen reiterated his commitment to improving financial aid for students and reducing the amount of loans at his State of the University address on May 4. Already, 50 percent of NU students receive need-based financial aid, Dixon said.

Because NU has a need-blind admissions policy — meaning that students are admitted regardless of financial need — there is no official data of all students’ family incomes.

Data collected from the 2002 Cooperative Institutional Research Program Freshman Survey reveals a wealthy student body. The unscientific survey was sent to incoming freshman at all universities and was completed by 1,013 members of last year’s freshman class.

Nearly 20 percent of NU students reported that their parents’ income was more than $250,000 a year, according to the survey’s results.

The CIRP national survey found that across the country, only 5.1 percent of college freshmen’s parents made more than $250,000.

This discrepancy does not surprise some NU students, many of whom said they believe that their peers are wealthier than the average college student.

Some students, however, said they were torn as to what could be done to increase economic diversity.

Duffy, for example, said she thinks this lack of economic diversity is a problem. She said financial affirmative action would be a way to increase diversity.

“I think financial affirmative action is more important to diversity than racial differences,” Duffy said.

Weinberg senior Michael Areizaga said he believes financial affirmative action would be a viable idea because even with financial aid, wealthier students have inherent advantages.

“If you come from a wealthy private high school, exposed to AP courses and IB courses, that makes students’ applications better,” he said. “If in the end, financial affirmative action would result in a more varied population, it’s a good thing.”

But some students questioned the fairness of such policies.

“I think admissions decisions should be based on the person, not the parents,” said Weinberg freshman Doug Kuzniar. “Even if you didn’t go to a great school, it’s up to the individual to be ambitious.”

Communication sophomore Ryan Smith said he thinks NU has a wealthy student body, but he does not believe income should be taken into account for admissions.

“Need-blind is the most important institution in admissions,” he said. “If that changes it could be used to impose discrimination.”