October 9, 2014
Is Hamilton more diverse than the Ivies? The New York Times College Access Index recently ranked Hamilton 27th in economic diversity, above such colleges as Yale, Princeton and Cornell. While this index has its shortcomings, Hamilton’s ranking is certainly a worthy topic of discussion. It raises many questions: what is economic diversity? Does Hamilton have it? Is it as important as other forms of diversity on a college campus?
Since before its first need-blind class was admitted in 2010, Hamilton has turned its focus towards bridging the economic gap between students and making the College affordable for everybody. Hamilton managed to overhaul its financial aid system in order to meet the goal of need-blind admissions, making Hamilton one of the more affordable colleges in the nation. While many schools claim to be need-blind, The New York Times Index gives a snapshot of the current situation and which of these schools are doing better than others in terms of economic diversity. However, it is important to look at its variables. The index is “based on the share of freshmen in recent years who received a Pell grant and the net-price of attendance for low and middle-income families.” Pell Grants are grants from the government that are based on student needs, with the maximum amount for the 2011-12 fiscal year set at $5,550. The problem with measuring income by using these grants is that not every low-income student will receive them.
The larger problem with the study is that all of its statistics are based on admitted students rather than those that are turned away. Therefore, the results are a snapshot of the diversity within the class without counting the many low-income students that a school could have turned away solely on the basis of their income. This problem leads to the stats possibly being somewhat unreliable. The snapshot of the class still provides a lot of information on how diverse the admissions at schools are and shows that Hamilton is doing something right compared to the competition.
This leads to the second question, whether Hamilton has economic diversity. This question has been a jumping-off point for organizations such as The Movement and discussion groups like “Class Matters.” While Hamilton may be closer to economic diversity than a lot of other schools, our students clearly have trouble with some of these issues, as shown by the response from The Movement. Hamilton has a lot of students from different economic backgrounds, but they might not interact with one another as much as they should, which causes this economic diversity not to matter as much. Without the interaction of classes, the economic diversity might as well not exist.
The final question asks whether or not all of this matters. Economic diversity is certainly an important type of diversity, but it is probably not any more important than ethnic diversity or diversity of ideas. As mentioned above, all types of diversity are only worth the amount of time that students of different backgrounds spend intermixing with each other. Admissions offices attempt to achieve this type of diversity by admitting a well-rounded class. They often seek to have a class well-rounded in interests as well as socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds. Hamilton’s number of majors and its score in the college access index shows it does well in the first two categories, and its “B+” in diversity on Niche, the site previously named College Prowler, shows its ethnic component is also improving.
Hamilton’s Offices of Admissions and Financial Aid is doing a great job of increasing the many kinds of diversity at the college. The task falls on the students to take advantage of this diversity by blending with their fellow students of different backgrounds and initiatives. I encourage students to avoid falling into friend groups of people just like them. Have lunch with a different group of people. Attend new social events. In short, take advantage of what Hamilton has to offer.
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