29. Scholarly Poor Overlooking Better Colleges

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/education/scholarly-poor-often-overlook-better-colleges.html?hp&_r=0

             David Leonhardt, the author of the New York Times article "Better Colleges Failing to Lure Talented Poor," talks about a very strange pattern: low-income students who have very high test scores and grades are not applying to the top best colleges. This is due to the nation's economic inequality and unbalance and because college graduates have a higher income than nongraduates. Only 34% of the higher academic high school students are attending the country's best colleges while high income high school students have gone to the most selective colleges. The author also includes how colleges have failed to bring in economically diverse students like they had planned. Most top low income students are now applying and attending small, community colleges next to their homes. The problem with that is that local colleges sometimes fail to provide the best academic resources for talented students and sometimes many do not graduate or if they do, they sometimes miss out on the best career opportunities that the top colleges offer. A new study showed that students from rural areas tend not to apply to huge, selective colleges.
              The author of this article used several rhetorical devices in his writing. The author's purpose is mostly informative and in some way it is persuasive: the author wants elite colleges to start recruiting low income students who have high academic grades. The author's tone is neutral but later develops into a very negative and critical tone. The author uses a cause and effect structure; the cause is that top low income students are not applying to the best colleges and the effect is that now top colleges are missing out in the diversity. The author uses a very ironic tone by saying that colleges have once promised to increase economic diversity of the students but has "failed to do so." The author includes numerous quotes from reliable sources and uses examples and statistics from credible people like professors from top elite colleges. The author says that the pattern is bringing about many consequences; the top low income students are losing opportunities because of their financial problems.