As Elite Campuses Diversify, A 'Bias Towards Privilege' Persists

Elite colleges are making strides to diversify their student bodies, both racially and economically. In the past few years, we've seen most top schools commit to enrolling more low-income students through financial aid, recruiting efforts and programs for high school students aimed at expanding the pipeline.

But once those students arrive on campus, says Anthony Abraham Jack, they often find the experience isolating and foreign.

"There's a difference between access and inclusion," explains Jack, an assistant professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and author of the new book The Privileged Poor: How Elite Colleges Are Failing Disadvantaged Students. "Universities have extended invitations to more and more diverse sets of students but have not changed their ways to adapt to who is on campus."

For his book, Jack profiles low-income students at an unnamed elite college. He puts them into two groups: Those coming from prep schools, and those coming from under-resourced public schools.

In those two groups, he finds key differences but one common problem: "We have paid less attention to what happens when