From the News You Can Use Archives 04/17/07

The Financial Gap Widens for College Freshmen
By Ian Crawford, Web Communications Editor

The parents of college freshmen have always had incomes above the national average. A recent report shows that the parents of today's freshmen have higher incomes than ever before. Furthermore, that gap is widening, highlighting the problem of access to higher education for lower-income students.

The American Freshmen: Forty-Year Trends 1996-2006 by the Higher Education Research Institute is based on data collected by UCLA from more than 8.3 million first-year students at 1,202 institutions nationwide since 1966. Among a wide range of data offering a snapshot of the values and characteristics of college freshmen are some of particular relevance to the financial aid industry.

Measured in 2006 dollars, there has been a 14 percent increase in the gap between freshmen parental income and the national average income:

	Freshmen Parental Median Income	National Average Income	Income Gap
1971	$13,200	$9,028	46 percent
2005	$74,000	$46,326	60 percent

"As colleges and universities continue their financial policies of increasing tuition and fees, we are seeing direct effects on students that come from poorer families," said José Luis Santos, UCLA assistant professor of education and an author of the report. “Poorer students alter their choices of whether or not to go to college at all, or choose a college based on financial costs and packages. Students from wealthier families can endure greater fluctuations in 'sticker price' than poorer students, and as a result, more students entering college come from homes that are increasingly wealthier than the national median income."

The report also highlighted the difference between parental income of freshman attending public and private institutions. The income of parents of freshmen attending public colleges is rising faster than for parents of those attending private institutions.

Income gap between national average and median parental income of freshmen (2006 dollars):

	Public 4-Year Institution	Private 4-Year Institution
1971	$17,800	$27,300
2005	$25,600	$35,700

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The American Freshmen: Forty-Year Trends 1996-2006 — The Higher Education Research Institute

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Story posted April 17, 2007.

 

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