The Missing “One-Offs”: The Hidden Supply of High-Achieving,

ABSTRACT We show that the vast majority of low-income high achievers do not apply to any selective college. This is despite the fact that selective institutions typically cost them less, owing to generous financial aid, than the two-year and nonselective four-year institutions to which they actually apply. Moreover, low-income high achievers have no reason to believe they will fail at selective institutions since those who do apply are admitted and gradu-ate at high rates. We demonstrate that low-income high achievers ’ applica-tion behavior differs greatly from that of their high-income counterparts with similar achievement. The latter generally follow experts ’ advice to apply to several “peer, ” a few “reach, ” and a couple of “safety ” colleges. We separate low-income high achievers into those whose application behavior is similar to that of their high-income counterparts (“achievement-typical”) and those who apply to no selective institutions (“income-typical”). We show that income-typical students are not more disadvantaged than the achievement-typical students. However, in contrast to the achievement-typical students