Low-income students can better access college options

My Word:

Abigail Seldin and Kim Cook

Last month, hundreds of higher-education leaders and student advocates from across the country gathered in Orlando for the National College Access Network’s 20th anniversary conference. The event, which focused on ways to promote college access and attainment, could not have been better timed: President Obama recently announced major changes to the financial-aid process, allowing students to fill out the Free Application for Federal Aid earlier and giving them the option of using tax information from two years before their expected college-enrollment date.

When paired with the administration’s recently released College Scorecard data, information designed to help students better understand the financial factors impacting college choice, these changes demonstrate promising momentum. But as we discussed during the conference, much work remains in improving college access and affordability — particularly for low-income students.

Take the challenge of “undermatching” — a phenomenon in which high-achieving, lowincome students dismiss selective colleges in favor of lesscompetitive schools based on sticker price alone. Elite colleges can actually be more affordable than state schools for many talented low-income students, thanks to generous endowments and financial-aid practices. The challenge is making sure more low-income students recognize this and seize the opportunity at hand.

So what can be done? For one, we can leverage technology to simplify the process. College Abacus has developed a new college-search App called “Pell Abacus,” which asks just one financial question: Are you eligible for free and reduced lunch? Students who answer “yes” are delivered individualized financial-aid estimates paired with school-specific data from the College Scorecard — everything from the percentage of students receiving Pell Grants to loanrepayment information.

Innovative technologies can go a long way in helping students understand their full range of financial-aid options. But they are just one tool in the toolbox. While Obama’s FAFSA changes are estimated to result in an additional 50,000 students receiving Pell Grants, there are still well more than 2 million students every year who would qualify for financial aid but don’t apply.

The National College Access Network has long championed efforts to further streamline the FAFSA for students, including proposals to expand the number of questions that can be automatically populated with Internal Revenue Service data.

U.S. Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee Chairman Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., has introduced bipartisan legislation that would, among other things, whittle the number of FAFSA questions down from 108 to two and allow year-round use of Pell Grants. That proposal is included in the upcoming reauthorization of the Higher Education Act, scheduled for consideration this fall or later this year, and we’ll be closely watching what develops in the weeks ahead.

For now, however, we owe all students every advantage possible.

Abigail Seldin is the co-founder of College Abacus and vice president of innovation and product management at ECMC Group.

Kim Cook is the executive director of the National College Access Network, a nonprofit organization.