University uses skewed income bracket

The University’s Financial Aid Office and Office of Communications currently laud that a record-breaking 17.5 percent of the Class of 2015 comes from low-income backgrounds. These 228 students, according to the University, are a testament to their commitment to college access for all low-income families, and the 17.5 percent figure is frequently used in University publications.

A look by The Daily Princetonian at University financial aid statistics, however, found that the University defines low-income students as those coming from households making $60,000 a year or less, a figure markedly greater than the 2009 national household median income of $49,777, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

While the US government does not provide definitions for “low income” or similar income brackets, according to the US Department of Health & Human Services, the University’s definition of low income is also significantly higher than the federal poverty line, with the Census Bureau considering a four-person household with an income of $22,314 or less in 2010 to fall below the poverty line.

Similarly, with 10.5 percent of families falling below the federal poverty line in 2009, according to the Census Bureau, and the poverty cutoff falling nearly $40,000 below the University’s low-income cutoff, it’s unclear how many of the students the University publicizes as low-income would meet federal standards for financial hardship.

For the 288 students recognized as low-income by the University, the institution covers 100 percent of tuition, room and board costs. University spokesman Martin Mbugua explained this distinction — which places the University’s definition of low income around $10,000 higher than what the average American family makes — by noting that, for the University’s purposes, families in financial need would not necessarily fall into the layman’s definition of low-income.

Mbugua explained that the University defines low income as beneath the median income for families likely to have children at or below college age, an approach that he described as “widely used” by peer institutions.

“This is a number that is provided as a measure of household income and is used generally based on the quintile that the family bracket falls into,” he said, adding that “the median income for families that would have children going to college would be in that range.”

Director of Undergraduate Financial Aid Robin Moscato explained in an email that the University’s definition of low income is developed with respect to its specific applicant pool, rather than the financial diversity of the nation at large. “What it is most closely related to is the median household income for families that represent our potential applicant pool — households with the presence of children at or below traditional college age,” she said.

Princeton is not alone in its adapted financial definitions. According to Yale’s Director of Financial Aid Caesar Storlazzi the New Haven university also uses $60,000 as the cutoff for low-income households, with 15.5 percent of the student body coming from such a background.

He explained that the definition wasn’t based on national income distribution, but rather a recognition of the weight that the cost of a college education can place even on a family that is otherwise financially secure.

“Folks in this category really can’t be expected to contribute towards the cost of education,” Storlazzi said. “A family making just under $60,000 really doesn’t have anything left at the end of the month to put towards higher education.”

University sociology professor Thomas Espenshade, who studies diversity in higher education, agreed that the definition of low income often must depend on the total composition of a given institution’s applicant pool, as candidates for admission at four-year colleges and universities are far from a representative sample of the nation as a whole. While it deviates from the national financial model, he said, the $60,000 figure has to be contextualized.

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“It’s certainly out of line with how low income is defined in the general U.S. population,” he said of the University’s income brackets. “Maybe it’s not so out of line in context with the applicant pool to Princeton.”

Under the University’s current financial aid program, which began with the Class of 2002, students coming from households earning less than $60,000 per year are expected to provide no parental contribution. Even if this 17.5 percent of students comes from families making more than the national median income, Moscato explained, they are unlikely to be able to afford a Princeton education.

“Whether you consider $60,000 low or middle income, there is no doubt that families with that level of resource cannot afford to pay for college and students might therefore bypass the chance to apply to Princeton,” she said, adding that this public definition sent a signal to parents that the University prioritizes access and affordability.

“Students from very modest financial backgrounds need a clear message that our aid program provides the opportunity to attend with full support and graduate with no debt,” Moscato noted.

While the 17.5 percent of students described as low-income by the University includes those coming from families making more than the national median, and would thus not be considered low-income in the traditional sense, 13 percent of the student body currently receives Pell Grants. These are granted solely to American citizens who come from families earning below the national median income.

This 13 percent figure is the sole piece of data on the number of undergraduate students from households that fall below the average income.

Beyond the percentage of students who come from the lowest income bracket, the University holds no data on the socioeconomic breakdown of the rest of the student body, Mbugua said. All current data is derived solely from financial aid applications, and to draw a correlation between these applications and the entire student body would be misleading, he said.

Mbugua would not release University data regarding the socioeconomic breakdown of the pool of financial aid recipients, saying he was “concerned about a misinterpretation of the data.”

Mbugua noted that the University publicizes the 17.5 percent figure to “show the makeup of the student body” and that the University did not plan to release information relating to other levels of socioeconomic diversity, such as the percentages of undergraduates that fall into different financial brackets.

“Our focus is on low-income [students],” Mbugua said. “It’s that number that speaks to what we are saying.”

Storlazzi also said that Yale also doesn’t publicize data beyond the lowest-income category, saying that the information was “confidential.”

There is equally little data at Princeton about the percentage of students that come from families in top-income brackets. The University awards an average grant of $16,500 to families that make $200,000 a year or more, a fact which Espenshade called “eye-opening.”

“I was surprised that a family could make more than $200,000 a year and still be receiving financial aid,” he said.

Moscato said that higher-income families only qualify for financial aid when there are two or more children in college simultaneously.