Delaware has a new plan to try and improve education achievement: encourage poor students to apply to better colleges.
According to this piece at the New York Times:
Delaware announced on Wednesday a new effort to encourage high-achieving low-income students to apply to top colleges, saying it would send application fee waivers and other information to every such high school senior in the state.
Under the new effort, paid for by the College Board, high-achieving low-income students will also receive a packet of information on selective colleges, as well as waivers for the application fee. The information includes details on admission and financial aid policies, as well as on the variation in graduation rates at different colleges.
The high-achieving and poor students will also get letters from 10 elite colleges letting them know that they’re “candidates for admission.”
The article mentions that this is actually a tiny program. Because Delaware is so small, there are really only about 80 high school students in the state who will be getting these special packages.
As I’ve pointed out before, the admission decisions of America’s top colleges has no discernible impact on society as a whole, but I guess it’s worth a try. It’ll be nice for those kids if they get into the country’s top colleges anyway.
