Students who get into the most elite universities have spent pretty much their entire school careers cramming their transcripts with stellar test scores, AP courses, and service projects. But then some of these brilliant young scholars arrive on campus and realize that while they've spent years preparing themselves,

their schools are not at all prepared to help them succeed.

From KERA in Dallas, this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd.

The problem, ironically, is tied to efforts to diversify

enrollments. The most exclusive schools actually have made strides toward admitting students from a wider

array of racial and ethnic backgrounds. And those who are as economically privileged as their

white classmates might find it somewhat easier to fit in.

But students who come from very low-income families can find it very challenging, even if they

arrive with ideal academic credentials and receive generous financial aid packages.

And not only are most universities not trying to help, my guest says many administrators might not even be aware of the additional

hardships these students are dealing with. Anthony Abraham Jack is the inaugural faculty director

of the Newberry Center and Associate Professor of Higher Education at Wheelock College of Education

and Human Development at Boston University. His new book is called Class Dismissed, when colleges ignore

inequality and students pay the price. Tony, welcome back to think.

Thank you for having me again. So right off the top, you acknowledge many elite schools

really are boosting racial and ethnic diversity, like a slim majority of Harvard's freshman

class in 2017 did not identify as

white. Why is it so important to also look critically at economic diversity and the effects

that has? It's incredibly important for mobility. I mean, you know, social inequality

shapes every, shapes so many students' lives through regardless of, you know, whether you come from the hollows

of West Virginia, whether you come from the San Francisco Bay Area.

Right, we have to pay attention to how social class direct students' paths

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