Financial Aid

Low-income students feel left out at Stanford

Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer

Jason Scott, shown in his dormitory room at Stanford, hel... Students have their pictures pinned on their hometowns on...

Jason Scott had just finished his first year at Stanford and had nowhere to live.

Financial aid didn't cover the dorms for the summer. He had $50 in his wallet, and so until paychecks arrived from his on-campus summer jobs, he needed to be resourceful.

For two weeks, he lived in his Jeep parked around Stanford's grassy Oval, with its grand view of the campus' sandstone arcades. He showered in the gym. He ate peanut butter sandwiches.

During the day, he worked in the registrar's office microfilming Stanford students' applications, the contents of which justified a nagging sense that most of his classmates came from a different world. Some referenced exotic travel, unusual sports such as water polo, and boarding schools with names like Phillips Exeter Academy and St. Paul's School.

"Who are these people?" he remembers asking himself.

Stanford says it admits the brightest students regardless of their ability to pay. Yet only 12 percent of Stanford's 6,759 undergraduates receive Pell Grants, a yardstick used to measure how many low-income students such as Scott are enrolled. The number hasn't budged despite Stanford's generous financial aid incentives in recent years. At UC Berkeley, meanwhile, 31 percent of undergraduates get the federal grants that are typically awarded to students from families earning less than $40,000 a year.

Scott, now a senior, and his college friends who also grew up poor entered a new universe at Stanford. For the first time, they clearly understood the advantages of money - knowledge that shaped their Stanford experience.

As much as money matters, Scott said, it matters most before students ever try to enroll. Kids who grow up with money attend good high schools. They understand the importance of mastering the violin or excelling at soccer. They have SAT preparation and sometimes professional college application consultants. Those advantages help smooth the way at the most prestigious of the West Coast's major private universities. Carrie Sturrock, Chronicle Staff Writer ... more

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