Is Financial Aid Meeting Its Goals?

• Position: Brief Article

College prices are as unstable as airfares, and financial aid has become a strategic tool for maximizing net revenues and increasing class size and average SAT scores. Are such enrollment management goals at odds with the aims of equal access to higher education?

According to economist Sandy Baum, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, N.Y., writing in The College Board Review, "The general problem is that the integrity of the institution may be compromised if it moves too far in the direction of using aid dollars to attract tuition dollars, rather than attract the most qualified student body." For example, an admissions office with $10,000 of available aid may be forced to choose between using those funds to attract three middle-income students or...