College Waiting Lists Can Favor the Well-Off

As the clock ticks and financial aid gets short, private schools often select wealthier students. By Stuart Silverstein Times Staff Writer May 20, 2005 Many high school seniors dangling on college waiting lists and still hoping to land fall-term openings at their top-choice schools will instead get a lesson in real-world economics: It pays to be rich.Selective private colleges acknowledge that they sometimes take affluent teens over those from poor or middle-class families needing financial aid when deciding which students to admit from their waiting lists.The reason, college administrators say, is that financial aid budgets often have been tapped out by the time those admissions are decided in May and June. The money has been allocated to students admitted earlier whom the schools most wanted to attract, rather than the backup choices typically relegated to the waiting list."It's the financial reality of things," said Paul Marthers, dean of admission at Reed College in Portland, Ore.At Reed, where officials take pride in providing full aid packages to needy students, "Every year we have to decide, 'Can we give financial aid to students on the waiting list?' " Marthers said. Often by that point, "The financial aid is just used up."

Full Story: http://ktla.trb.com/news/local/la-me-waitlist20may20,0,4278213.story?coll=ktla-news-1