Increasing Minority Students' Access to Graduate Schools

Although higher education in the United States spans nearly four centuries, minority students continue to struggle to gain access to institutions of higher education, particularly at the graduate and professional levels. Based on survey data we collected in 2002 and 2003, we examined the financial considerations that Summer Research Opportunities Program participants took into account when deciding whether or not to pursue graduate degrees. We found that the participants from higher income brackets were more likely to tolerate a less favorable graduate school financial aid package than students from low- to middle-income brackets, which suggests that lower-income students are less likely to pursue graduate study if they are not offered competitive financial aid packages