College Board Helps College Recruiters Target Low-Income Students

As part of a College Board pilot program nearly 30 colleges and universities will be allowed to buy the names and personal information of low-income high school students — a data set that has been off limits since the early 1980s, according to the Chicago Tribune (“Colleges Recruit Low-Income Students,” May 24, 2008).

The College Board currently sells data to colleges that it collects from the SAT and other College Board–administered exams, including high school students’ grades, test scores, race, religion, and other demographic information. The nonprofit college membership association stopped offering family income data nearly 20 years ago after it found that some schools had misused that information to target admissions offers to students who could afford full tuition.

But in response to lobbying by colleges and universities that are “trying to bring more economic diversity to their overwhelmingly affluent student bodies,” the College Board is now making the income data partially available again, writes Chicago Tribune reporter Jodi Cohen.

“We are using it for good, not for evil,” said Bruce Poch, dean of admissions at Pomona College. “The myth of unaffordability has become a nightmare, and we can’t directly speak to kids or their families unless we can really target them.”

To ensure that students’ privacy isn’t violated and that the information isn’t misused, schools cannot request a search that would reveal which students have family incomes above or below a certain level. College admissions officers can only request the names of students who live in low-income communities, determined by their high school and nine-digit ZIP code.

While the College Board will not disclose the names of colleges currently participating in its expanded pilot program, Amherst College, Williams College, and Wellesley College were three of the schools that tested the system last year. Amherst Dean of Admissions Tom Parker said 1,000 more low-income students received direct mail from Amherst after using the program.

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