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Why Grinnell?
Grinnell College'due south Alumni Recitation Hall

In my last few columns, I accept written about the recent efforts of Washington University in St. Louis to go more than socioeconomically various. If Launder U. officials want to know more nigh what it takes for an aristocracy private liberal arts college to excel in this pursuit, they should look no further than Grinnell College in Iowa.

Grinnell has long been committed to enrolling depression-income students. Currently, almost a quarter of the school's students are recipients of Pell Grants, which is the federal government's primary source of aid for financially needy students. The college not simply welcomes financially needy students but provides them with enough financial and academic support to help them succeed at the schoolhouse.

Grinnell is "demand blind" in admissions, meaning that information technology doesn't take financial considerations into account when albeit students. It also pledges to run across the total financial need of students with grants and a relatively small amount of federal loans.

These policies have proven to exist extremely expensive for a higher that admits such a large share of depression-income students, enrolls far fewer "total-pay" students than many of its peers, and generates considerably less in philanthropic back up that can be spent on demand-based financial aid. Worried that these practices were non sustainable, the college's Board of Trustees created a stir on campus when it considered abandoning the institution's need-blind policy in 2012.

Related: Q&A with Leah Merrifield: A leading voice for socioeconomic diversity at Wash U.

Many colleges, under such financial stress, would likely have reduced the share of low-income students they enroll. Not Grinnell. Instead, the school's administrators have bolstered the college's financial help budget, primarily by boosting the number of international students who can pay full freight and strengthening its alumni fundraising efforts, according to Joe Bagnoli, Grinnell'southward dean of admissions and fiscal aid.

"Right now, this country needs all the brainpower nosotros can find. Nosotros need leaders with different experiences and points of view," said Raynard S. Kington, president of Grinnell College. "And we don't recall students' ability to get a first-rate college education and contribute to society should be limited by their family resources."

In addition, the college plans to reduce its spending on merit help. Currently, well-nigh 15 percent of Grinnell freshmen receive scholarships from the school but take no financial demand. "Merit aid has helped Grinnell both attract highly qualified students and generate revenue for the purpose of underwriting the costs associated with our commitments to variety and admission," Bagnoli recently told me over email.

"By building stronger marketplace demand for the tremendous program Grinnell offers, we plan to begin reducing our investment in merit assistance without compromise to the bookish profile of our student body and without losses to student revenue," he wrote. "It's a delicate balance (we cannot likewise quickly remove merit assistance earlier achieving a more competitive market position) only we are optimistic that nosotros can recover electric current investments in merit aid while continuing to attract an outstanding and various student body."

Pleased with the results of these changes, the lath recently agreed to proceed Grinnell demand-blind for at least some other 3 years. "It'south been a long climb," Bagnoli said during a divide interview in November. "But nosotros are increasingly convinced that existence demand-blind is a disquisitional chemical element of our institutional identity."

Related: Irresolute the incentives for colleges to enroll and graduate low-income students

Where does Grinnell's commitment to socioeconomic diversity come from? Officials there say information technology is in keeping with the college's history of social activism.

"Where does Grinnell's commitment to socioeconomic diversity come from? Officials at that place say information technology is in keeping with the higher's history of social activism. The school was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by social reformers and abolitionists."

The school was founded in the mid-nineteenth century by social reformers and abolitionists. One of the institution's major benefactors—Josiah Bushnell Grinnell—was a "conductor" on the Underground Railroad, which helped ship slaves to states in which they could proceeds their freedom.

Nearly a century afterward, Grinnell alumni, such as Harry Hopkins, were fundamental architects of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Bargain programs.

Today, the higher lists "social responsibility" every bit one of its three core values. "The students we cull to admit are an expression of those commitments," Bagnoli said.

Related: V things to know almost Wash U.'s programme to become more socioeconomically diverse

Grinnell has proven adept at finding low-income students who have the academic qualifications to succeed at the schoolhouse. In addition to its own recruiting, the college works with outside organizations that identify financially needy students who take the potential to thrive at tiptop schools. For example, the college has partnerships with the following organizations:

  • The Posse Foundation, which sends groups of low-income and minority students to the college from New Orleans and Washington, D.C.
  • Questbridge, a nonprofit that acts as a matchmaker between depression-income students and elite colleges.
  • Chicago Scholars, which brings to the college "academically driven, first generation college students from under-resourced communities."

Grinnell besides flies first-generation and other underrepresented prospective students to the school twice a year so they can run into and feel the campus for themselves.

Related: Why Sen. Lamar Alexander is wrong about college affordability

Recruiting high-achieving, low-income students will remain a priority at Grinnell, according to its president, Raynard South. Kington. "Colleges nationwide recruit high-achieving, depression-income students from magnet schools and other special programs that identify talent. That'due south skilful, and we demand to do a lot more, including recruiting high-achievers trapped in nether-performing schools," he said. "Right now, this country needs all the brainpower nosotros can find. We need leaders with dissimilar experiences and points of view. And we don't think students' ability to go a first-charge per unit college education and contribute to guild should exist limited by their family resource."

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Stephen Burd is a senior policy analyst in the Educational activity Policy Program at the New America Foundation, a non-partisan public policy plant in Washington, DC. He is on his second stint at New America,...