Financial Aid Brings Beneficial Diversity to Campus
February 8, 2008
Observer editor Dan Rosen recently sat down with Tufts sophomore Santiago Gasca to interview him about his financial aid situation.
A number of students argue that instead of Tufts increasing its financial award aid to students, it should use its endowment to decrease the price of tuition. Would you agree?
I first would like to say that believe in the program for need blind admissions. I think that admissions should look at all students equally, as individual candidates, before reviewing their financial status. I know there are a number of students who cant afford tuition right now, and that there is a large portion of the student body receiving financial aid.
A lot of people don’t realize that Tufts already contributes a substantial amount of its endowment toward lowering financial aid costs for individual students. Lowering tuition would just make prices for the school increase.
It has been suggested that many bright young American high school students do not work as hard because they simply don’t believe they will ever have the financial ability to attend. Is this a common trend?
Definitely. There are a huge number of students with that mentality, especially in schools that serve lower-income areas. For example, my middle school served generally very poor students. Most of the children didn’t even believe they would graduate high school, let alone college. Most of them thought about community college or vocational schools, if at all. I had so many friends who were very intelligent, very bright, and very talented students but they knew they couldn’t afford an education. So, rather than setting their sights on higher learning, they simply resigned themselves to doing what they believed they were limited to.
Should students from lower-income families receive preferential admissions treatment, similar to current affirmative-action programs based on race, to help minimize the income gap in universities?
In short, yes. Having need-blind admissions is just one small step toward evening the playing field. It is important to realize that most lower-income students do not have the same early benefits as more affluent students. From the beginning, most of the lower income students do not have access to as good an education, even from nursery school, which puts them at a disadvantage. Even if wealthy students take advantage of the public education system, it is likely that they are attending a public school in a wealthy area. Students at schools that serve primarily low-income students will often find decrepit buildings and teachers that need to spend more time disciplining their students rather than motivating them to succeed.
There is a quality-in-education gap that extends beyond even the school system itself, in SAT preparation for example. Many lower-income students cannot afford the expensive prep programs that other students attend, such as those offered by Kaplan and the Princeton Review, for example.
Do some students flashy displays of wealth, such as expensive cars, ever make you feel uncomfortable or unwelcome?
Because I was in a special program that paid for me to go to a private high school, I don’t really feel uncomfortable. I went to a school that hosted some of the most affluent families in my area, so I am definitely used to it. However, I see it affecting a lot of people here. One of my good friends has had a hard time because they really focus on the disparities. Some students treat [this person] differently, not in a racist or condescending manner, per se, but because they come from a different background they may just act differently. To help avoid such problems, all parties involved really have to make an effort to educate each other and not think of any differences as being negative.
Does it really matter?
Of course there is a benefit to everyone. We at Tufts pride ourselves in being part of the global community. How can you consider yourself global without having your student body encompass all types of backgrounds and cultures? By increasing the range in who we admit, we will also have a larger impact on more communities. Students from non-traditional backgrounds will hopefully go back home employ what they have learned here to better their communities.