Education trust studyFindings in Opportunity AdriftStudents from families earning more than $100,000 a year* 32 percent attend public, four-year, doctoral-granting universities* 25 percent attend public, two-year colleges* 11 percent attend public, four-year, non doctoral-granting universitiesStudents from families earning less than $20,000 a year* 37 percent attend public, two-year colleges* 21 percent attend public, four-year, doctoral-granting universities* 12 percent attend public, four-year, non doctoral-granting universitiesSource: Opportunity AdriftTOP PUBLIC VS. PRIVATEEntering minority studentsUT — 11 percentVanderbilt University — 20 percentEntering low-income studentsUT — 22 percentVanderbilt — 12 percentSource: Opportunity Adrift
While the University of Tennessee works to become a prestigious and nationally competitive university, it may be overlooking the state’s neediest college students, researchers found.
Some low-income and minority students who would academically qualify to attend the state’s leading public university are choosing to attend community colleges or less-selective universities because of rising costs, and this trend will hurt states like Tennessee in the long run, according to a national report on equity and diversity at all 50 state flagship institutions.
“The fact that you have an underutilized and wasted talent in these areas will be a deterrent to the future work force of these states,” said Jennifer Engle, assistant director of higher education at the Education Trust, a nonprofit organization based in Washington, D.C., that conducted the “Opportunity Adrift” study.
Neglecting this segment of the student population is a big problem for some state legislators who are concerned that, as UT attempts to shed its image as an everyman’s college, it will become too exclusive.